佛蒙特州拉特兰县拉特兰市一家庭10月27日起诉州教育官员：指控城镇学费与双录取项目排除宗教学校
佛蒙特州一个家庭10月27日向美国佛蒙特州联邦地区法院提起诉讼，指控州教育官员通过城镇学费项目和双录取项目歧视宗教学校。原告是毕晓普一家和他们的孩子，诉状中以化名A.B.指代这名学生。
A.B.是拉特兰市天主教高中芒特圣约瑟夫学院的一名高三学生，一家人住在北奇滕登，信仰上属于无宗派基督徒。他们所在的巴斯托联合学区不设高中，由学区出资送学生到别处上学。
佛蒙特州的双录取项目允许高中三年级和四年级学生免费修读大学课程，但只有获得城镇学费资助的私立学校学生才能参加。诉状称，州官员实际上禁止这些公共福利项目用于宗教学校就读，使毕晓普一家成为“佛蒙特州最新一轮宗教歧视的受害者”，并请求法院发布禁令和确认性救济，让A.B.在最后一个学年能够参加这两个项目。
被告包括州教育厅长佐伊·桑德斯、州教育委员会主席塔米·科尔比和巴斯托联合学区。原告由曾在美国最高法院赢得宗教自由案件的法律非营利组织“捍卫自由联盟”代理。
Vermont Family Sues State Education Officials on October 27, Alleging Town Tuition and Dual Enrollment Programs Exclude Religious Schools
A Vermont family on October 27 filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont against state education officials, alleging that the Town Tuition Program and the Dual Enrollment Program discriminate against religious schools. The plaintiffs are the Bishop family and their child, referred to in the complaint by the pseudonym A.B. A.B. is a senior at Mount St. Joseph Academy, a Catholic high school in Rutland; the family lives in North Chittenden and are nondenominational Christians. Their Barstow Unified Union School District operates no high school and pays tuition for students to attend school elsewhere.
Vermont's Dual Enrollment Program allows high school juniors and seniors to take college courses for free, but only private school students who receive town tuition support may participate. The complaint says state officials have effectively barred these public benefit programs from being used at religious schools, making the Bishop family "the victims of Vermont's latest round of religious discrimination," and asks the court for injunctive and declaratory relief so that A.B. can take part in both programs during her final school year.
The defendants include Agency of Education Secretary Zoe Sanders, State Board of Education Chair Tammy Kolbe and the Barstow Unified Union School District. The plaintiffs are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal nonprofit that has won religious freedom cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：佛蒙特州拉特兰市市中心的法院与教堂建筑 / Courthouse and church buildings in downtown Rutland, Vermont. Photo: Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
