Georgia excludes students from state aid who choose to attend Christian college

ATLANTA – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Georgia officials for excluding a Christian college from participating in student financial aid programs widely available to other colleges, harming high school and college students as a result.

Georgia offers student financial aid programs to help students cover tuition costs for undergraduate degree programs at Georgia colleges and universities. While the state allows private and religious colleges to participate in such programs, Georgia excludes schools that state officials consider a “school or college of theology or divinity.” Luther Rice College and Seminary, whom ADF attorneys represent, is one such school that Georgia has barred from participating in student financial aid programs because it has a religious mission, awards religious degrees, and teaches all of its courses from a Christian perspective.

“By unlawfully discriminating against Luther Rice’s religious beliefs, Georgia officials are ultimately hurting the state’s students,” said ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker, director of the Center for Christian Ministries. “Georgia high school students can’t receive dual credit by taking classes at Luther Rice; college students who choose Luther Rice are denied much-needed financial aid available to students at other colleges. On behalf of all Georgia’s students, we are urging the court to uphold Luther Rice’s constitutional protections by guaranteeing that the school can fully participate in student aid programs while still adhering to its religious beliefs, character, and exercise.”

Luther Rice, located near Atlanta, is a Christian, private, nonprofit college that offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral-level degree programs. It offers three undergraduate degree programs: an Associate of Arts in General Studies, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Religion.

Georgia allows other religious schools—including schools that offer religious undergraduate degree programs like Luther Rice—to participate in the programs, but it has excluded Luther Rice. Because of that exclusion, no Luther Rice student can receive state student aid for any degree or course, not even for its general studies or psychology programs. And no Georgia high school student can receive dual credit at Luther Rice.

As the lawsuit explains, Luther Rice faces a choice between maintaining its religious mission and degree programs and teaching all courses from a Christian worldview or giving up that religious character and exercise to participate equally with other schools in the state.

“Putting the school to that choice is unconstitutional,” said ADF Legal Counsel Andrea Dill. “By denying the school participation in Georgia student aid programs because of its religious character, beliefs, and exercise, the state is penalizing the school and its students based on their religion—discrimination that, as the U.S. Supreme Court has found, is ‘odious to our Constitution.’”

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, Luther Rice College and Seminary v. Riley, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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