The Establishment Clause and Public Funding of Religious Colleges

Abstract

This Article examines the Establishment Clause’s limitations on public funding using evangelical Christian college cases wherever possible. It purposely is designed as a primer for Christian college administrators who want to avoid constitutional challenges when seeking public funding. After a brief section on the Establishment Clause’s history, this Article focuses in Part II on “indirect funding” cases that govern the constitutionality of student loans where the student exercises an independent choice as to which college will receive his or her loan proceeds. Part III of this Article examines the First Amendment law governing direct public funding of educational institutions (e.g., grants, tuition payments and bonds where money flows directly to colleges from the government). Finally, in Part IV this Article summarizes the current status of Establishment Clause law as applied to religious colleges, and provides some concluding remarks.

Keywords: Establishment Clause, public funding, religious college, First Amendment

JEL Classification: K1, K10, K19, K30, K20, K40