Oregon Mother Sues School District Over Ban on Reimbursing Christian Curriculum
Tessa Bulzan, a mother of five who homeschools her children, sued Hillsboro School District in federal court in Oregon after it refused to reimburse curriculum she bought through the district's Homeschool Partnership program, which pays families back for approved teaching materials. Bulzan submitted receipts in January for cursive, poetry, and grammar books from publishers Abeka and Classical Conversations. Court documents show the district denied the reimbursement because of the Christian and biblical worldview the materials teach, even though Bulzan says a program representative had told her beforehand that any curriculum, including religious materials, would qualify.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Kate Anderson, who represents Bulzan, argues the program reimbursed books built around other viewpoints while singling out Christian content for exclusion, violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments. "It has to treat it on the same footing as secular curriculum," Anderson said. The district's program materials now state that only non religious curriculum qualifies for reimbursement. The lawsuit is pending, and the district has not issued a public response beyond the reasoning given in its own records.
