Basketball Team’s Full Court Press for Religious Liberty Pays Off

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Above: Mid Vermont Christian School basketball players outside of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York City on April 9, 2025 (Photo Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom).

A Christian school in Vermont recently won a major legal victory — and the price tag for violating its constitutional rights was steep.

The Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) believes that human beings are created either male or female. In 2023, the MVCS girls’ basketball team decided to forfeit a game rather than violate its religious convictions by forcing its girls to play against a team with a male player. But the Vermont Principals Association decided to punish the school for forfeiting the game by kicking it out of the sports league. That led to a major court battle — and a victory for MVCS.

Now the Vermont Principals Association has agreed to pay a $566,000 settlement for damages and attorneys’ fees to Mid Vermont Christian School.

Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom represented the school in court. ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman put it plainly: “The government cannot punish religious schools — and the families they serve — by permanently kicking them out of state-sponsored sports simply because the state disagrees with their religious beliefs.”

Stories like this one are part of the reason Arkansas passed Act 461 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) in 2021 to protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.

Letting men compete in women’s sports is unfair and reverses 50 years of advancements for women. Female cyclists, swimmers, powerlifters, sprinters, volleyball players, and others have seen their sports radically changed by men who claim to be women. In some cases it can even be dangerous.

Right now the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a federal case that could affect state laws like Arkansas’ Act 461. Family Council joined dozens of state policy organizations and more than 200 state legislators in a legal brief in that case last September.

Most Americans agree that athletes should compete according to their biological sex — not their gender identity. This settlement between Mid Vermont Christian School and the Vermont Principals Association is a victory for religious freedom, fairness in girls’ sports, and common sense.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Here’s How the State Board of Education Could Fix Its EFA Rules

Home School,

We have written repeatedly about how lawmakers could vote very soon a flawed set of rules governing the Educational Freedom Account (EFA) program.

Arkansas created the EFA program in 2023, making it possible for Arkansas’ students to use public funds to pay for an education at a public or private school or at home. Thousands of students have taken advantage of school choice in Arkansas under this program, and many homeschool families have benefited from it.

But late last year, the Arkansas Department of Education began developing new administrative rules for the EFA program restricting how EFA funds could be used — especially when it came to athletic activities.

Homeschool families and organizations began voicing concerns about how the rules would prohibit EFA spending on many team sports while still letting private schools and public schools spend public tax dollars and EFA funds on school athletics.

Family Council and the Education Alliance offered changes to the rules, but the latest version of the rules still prohibits EFA funds from being used for team sports that require tryouts or limit participation based on ability.

The rules still establish new categories and restrictions on educational expenses, and they still reduce the maximum balance families can carry in their EFA accounts.

The Department of Education could fix the rules by doing two things:

1. Make Sure the Rules Track with State Law
Arkansas law already contains clear restrictions on EFA funds and how families use them to pay for educational expenses.

Arkansas law also makes it clear that no more than one-fourth of a student’s EFA funds can go toward extracurricular activities.

The law does not let the Department of Education write additional restrictions – like prohibiting EFA funds from paying for athletic activities that require tryouts.

The Department of Education should revise the rules to make sure they don’t go beyond existing state law.

2. Make the Rules Fair and Equitable for Every EFA Student
Arkansans submitted hundreds of public comments to the State Board of Education regarding the proposed rules, and many of them expressed concerns about how the new rules would go beyond state law and hurt homeschoolers participating in the EFA program. In response, the Department of Education wrote that it “respectfully rejects the premise that the goal of the EFA program in the homeschool context is or should be to provide equity between public or private schools and homeschooling.” In other words, the Department of Education does not believe its rules have to be fair to homeschoolers participating in the EFA program.

The EFA program is voluntary, and whether a family participates in it or not is up to them. But if a family chooses to homeschool under the EFA program, the rules ought to be fair for everyone. 

The Department of Education should revise the rules to make sure they are fair and equitable for everyone.

We are urging homeschoolers across the state to ask their lawmakers to make sure the new EFA rules are fair to homeschool families.

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