5 facts to know about Kamala Harris' VP pick Tim Walz
3. Walz signed law excluding faith-based colleges from dual enrollment program
Last year, Walz approved changes to the state’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options Program, which seeks to promote “rigorous academic pursuits” and provide a “wider variety of options” to high school students by enabling them to enroll either full time or part time at institutions of higher education and receive no-cost college and high school credit simultaneously.
The changes signed into law by Walz exclude institutions that “require a faith statement from a secondary student seeking to enroll in a postsecondary course” or “base any part of the admission decision based on a student’s race, creed, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexual orientation or religious beliefs or affiliations.”
This prompted a lawsuit from faith-based colleges and universities in the state as well as parents seeking to have their high school-aged children enroll in college-level classes there.
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In response to the lawsuit, the state agreed not to enforce the newly passed revisions to the PSEO program. However, litigation resumed after the state filed counterclaims insisting that because the faith-based colleges and universities receive state funding under the PSEO program, they are now state actors. Since they view such institutions as state actors, the state maintains that the statements of faith they require prospective students to abide by are unconstitutional.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
