BLOOMINGTON, Ind.
(AP) - The Lighthouse Christian Academy promises to provide an exemplary
education, a caring atmosphere and service to God - but not for everyone.
The school says in its admissions brochure that it reserves the right to
deny admission to LGBT students because their lifestyle is prohibited by the
Bible.
As the Trump
administration seeks to expand school choice nationwide, the academy was
thrust into the national spotlight last month as part of a heated debate
over whether schools that receive money from taxpayer-funded vouchers can
discriminate against certain groups of students, such as LGBT children or
students with disabilities.
Lighthouse
officials say they’ve never turned anyone away based on sexual orientation.
But at a congressional hearing, Senate Democrats cited it as an example of a
school that discriminates against LGBT students. A Lighthouse brochure says
the Bible does not allow homosexual, bisexual or “any form of sexual
immorality” and if a student’s “home life” violates biblical rules, the
school can deny them admission or expel them.
Pressed on the
issue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, an ardent supporter of school
choice, told the Senate committee that discrimination is wrong, but that it
was up to Congress and the courts, not her department, to intervene.
Founded in the
early 1990s by a tight-knit group of families who wanted an affordable
Christian education for their children, the academy is now an academically
successful K-12 school serving 300 children in the Bloomington area. About
half receive vouchers to help pay an annual tuition that ranges from $4,500
to $6,000 depending on a student’s grade.
This year,
Lighthouse received over $665,000 in state funds to enroll 152 students.
DeVos and the Trump
administration are strong proponents of giving states a greater role in
education. Earlier this year, the administration rescinded former President
Barack Obama’s guidance that instructed to schools to let students use
school restrooms in accordance with the gender they identify with, not their
sex at birth. The move sparked criticism from the civil rights community.
The administration
is looking at taxpayer-funded vouchers as a way to expand school choice
nationwide, but it has not yet come out with a specific plan on how to do
it.
Indiana is one of
30 states that use public money for school choice programs, including
vouchers, educational savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships. The
District of Columbia has the country’s only federally funded voucher
program. All told, some 450,000 students participate nationally.
In a study last
year, Indiana University professor Suzanne Eckes found that none of the
states with voucher programs prohibits discrimination against LGBT students.
Lighthouse defends
its right to educate children according to its values, saying that
Christians are state taxpayers, too, and should be allowed to fund
institutions of their choice with their money.
“Parents are free
to choose which school best comports with their religious convictions,”
Brian Bailey, an attorney who is serving as the school’s spokesman, said in
a statement. “For a real choice and thus real liberty to exist, the
government may not impose its own orthodoxy and homogenize all schools to
conform to politically correct attitudes and ideologies.”
Former Lighthouse
student Mary Wegener, 24, says some of her classmates at the school were gay
and received love and care. Bailey confirmed that the school did admit some
students who were “tempted by same-sex intimacy,” saying “we teach our
students to flee these sins.”
Wegener sees both
sides of the story, but says a religious school cannot function contrary to
its core beliefs.
“If they
(Lighthouse) are going to be a Christian school, they can’t conform to
everything else, because then that would be a private school that knocked
out the Christian name.”
Carissa Dollar, 46,
of Indianapolis, who has a transgender daughter, is unconvinced.
“I have a problem
with public funds going to a private institution who then make decisions
that would be discriminatory to any group,” Dollar said. “It’s wrong if an
LGBT student, or even if someone in their family identifies on the LGBT
spectrum, could be denied admission to the school.”
Dick Komer, senior
attorney with Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm,
said that federal law has protections against discrimination on the basis of
race, national identity, sex and religion, but they do not extend to LGBT
individuals.
“If the people who
are grilling DeVos believe that sex includes sexual orientation and gender
identity, then they should propose amendments to the statues that they have
written and given her to enforce,” Komer said. “The Congress is supposed to
write the law, the agency is supposed to administer what Congress has given
them. And Congress hasn’t given it to them.”
Eckes, the Indiana
University professor, said states must create protections to ensure that any
benefit they create is available to all. She said that decades ago some
private schools used their own interpretation of the Bible to exclude
African-American students and federal protections were necessary to stop
those practices.
“If you accept
public money in the form of a voucher then you shouldn’t be able to
discriminate whether it’s based on race, ethnicity, national origin,
religion, disability or sexual orientation,” Eckes said. “If you agree to
take that public money, then there are certain rules that you need to
follow.”
Lindsey Burke,
director of education policy studies at the conservative Heritage
Foundation, disagrees.
“Racism was based
on identity and skin color and had no reasonable basis,” Burke said. “This
is about whether a student, a family is going to live out their communal
beliefs of the school that they have chosen to attend. These are intentional
communities that are built upon a moral code that they have decided on.”
Lily Eskelsen
Garc’a, president of the National Education Association, the country’s
largest teachers’ union, said the Trump administration’s attempt to fund
private schools takes away money from public schools, where discrimination
is not allowed.
“Every child, every
blessed child has the legal, civil and the human right to attend their
public school, but no one can say that about a private school,” Eskelsen
Garcia said. “Why would you get public dollars to a school that
discriminates against students?”