Adventist school wins right to state funds

Christian Century, August 30, 2000

A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that state officials must directly subsidize a Seventh-day Adventist college, overturning a state decision that the school's teachings were too religious in nature to receive state funds. The landmark ease involving Columbia Union College, a church-affiliated school of about 1,100 students in Takoma Park, Maryland, is considered important because it involves direct funds and not money to buy equipment.

Under the state's Sellinger Program, private colleges can apply to receive $40 million in state funds for nonreligious programs each year. Columbia Union first applied for the program in 1990 but was repeatedly denied. It filed suit in 1996.

Even though several Catholic colleges had qualified for the program, state officials said Columbia Union's program was so infused with religion that giving it state money would violate the constitutional separation of church and state, according to the Washington Post.

Observers said Judge Marvin J. Garbis's decision was heavily influenced by a June u.s. Supreme Court ruling that said parochial schools in Louisiana could use federal funds to buy computers. Garbis had previously ruled against the school, but the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told him to reconsider in light of the Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court had ruled in 1976 that the program could not be used for "pervasively sectarian" institutions, and state boards had repeatedly said the school is "pervasively sectarian." Garbis said that though the decision still stands, it is on "shaky footing" in light of the court's Louisiana decision. --RNS