The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking a Colorado school district to immediately halt its unconstitutional funding of an explicitly Christian school that claims to be a public institution.

In a letter sent to Superintendent Peter Hilts, FFRF attorneys Samantha Lawrence and Charlotte Gude explain that the School District 49 is unlawfully providing public funds to Riverstone Academy — a self-described “public Christian school.”

Riverstone Academy, which calls itself “the first public Christian school in Colorado,” openly proclaims that it “blends strong academics with classical values, hands-on trade-based learning, and a Christian foundation to help students grow in both knowledge and character.” The Colorado Department of Education has already warned the district that funding Riverstone would violate both the U.S. and Colorado constitutions.

“The district is unconstitutionally giving public funds to a Christian school in direct violation of the First Amendment,” the letter states. “The district’s actions signal an undeniable preference for Christianity over all other religions and nonreligion.”

FFRF’s letter cites decades of U.S. Supreme Court precedent affirming that public schools may not promote religion, provide religious instruction or financially support sectarian institutions. As the Supreme Court made clear as far back as Everson v. Board of Education (1947), “The government cannot … contribute tax-raised funds to the support of an institution which teaches the tenets and faith of any church.”

Lawrence and Gude further point out that the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Carson v. Makin and Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue — often invoked by Christian nationalists seeking public funds — do not apply here. Those cases involved parents’ private decisions to direct state tuition assistance to religious schools, not a public school district directly funding a sectarian “public” school.

“Here, the district is directly funding Riverstone Academy’s religious endeavors: teaching students to believe in Christianity and teaching subjects through an exclusively Christian lens,” FFRF’s letter explains. “Giving public funds to Riverstone Academy violates the Establishment Clause, while refraining from publicly funding this sectarian school would do no harm to the school’s Free Exercise rights.”

In addition to the federal violation, the letter underscores that the district is also running afoul of the Colorado Constitution, which unambiguously prohibits sectarian instruction in public schools and forbids any public funds from supporting schools controlled by religious denominations.

“The Colorado Constitution could not be clearer,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “No sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in public school — yet that’s exactly what is happening here.”

FFRF is urging School District 49 to immediately cease all funding to Riverstone Academy and to affirm its commitment to the constitutional separation between state and church.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 1,400 members and a chapter in Colorado. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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