March 17, 2023
The news item has been seen across the country: The Mid-Vermont Christian School, a small, private school in Quechee, Vermont, forfeited its girls basketball team’s playoff game because (horrors!) the other team had a trans athlete. MVCS couched its decision in terms of the “safety of its athletes,” but let’s not kid ourselves: the decision was based on the school’s doctrinal anti-trans world view.
In response, the Vermont Principals Association has suspended the school from all interscholastic athletics. You can bet that someone is going to be suing somebody.
But that’s not really why I am writing this blog. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that states cannot exclude religious and parochial schools when providing money for public school tuition means that Vermont taxpayers will now be on the hook to subsidize MVCS’ open and unapologetic discrimination.
And the school doesn’t just discriminate on the basis of gender identity: unlike public schools, MVCS also excludes students with special needs. And a child with any disciplinary issues can be expelled without any of the due process niceties that govern public schools.
That’s not how I want my tax dollars spent.