Polis’s School Choice Hypocrisy: Grabs Trump’s Federal Funds for Private Schools While Suing a Christian Preschool Over Gender Mandates
Governor Jared Polis made headlines in late 2025 as the first Democratic governor to opt Colorado into President Trump’s federal tax-credit scholarship program. On Fox News he called it a “no-brainer” and a “real boom of investment in kids,” projecting millions in new federal dollars for private school tuition, tutoring, summer programs, and other options—all at no cost to the state. The move lets donors receive federal tax credits to fund scholarships for families choosing private, including religious, education. Polis framed it as pure parental empowerment, breaking sharply with his party’s opposition to vouchers.
Colorado voters, however, have repeatedly rejected similar state-level voucher proposals, most recently Amendment 80 in 2024. Polis himself long insisted public money should stay in public schools. By opting into the Trump program, he bypasses those voter decisions and opens a federal backdoor to private school funding.
The timing exposes a glaring contradiction. While Polis celebrates federal private choice, his administration is actively appealing a federal court ruling to strip state preschool funding from Darren Patterson Christian Academy—a private evangelical preschool in Buena Vista. The academy participates in Colorado’s Universal Preschool program, which Polis launched in 2023. It welcomes all children regardless of family background but maintains faith-based policies on hiring, pronouns, restrooms, and dress codes rooted in biblical beliefs.
In February 2025, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the state’s nondiscrimination mandates (barring discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity) violated the academy’s First Amendment rights. The court issued a permanent injunction: the state cannot withhold funds or punish the school for its religious practices. In May 2025, Polis’s Department of Early Childhood appealed the decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal remains pending as of January 2026, with the academy still receiving taxpayer dollars under the injunction.
Polis has never publicly disavowed the appeal. His administration, backed by an ACLU-led coalition, continues fighting to enforce DEI requirements on religious providers who receive state funds. This stands in stark contrast to the Trump program, which carries no such state-imposed gender or sexuality mandates.
The hypocrisy is unmistakable. Polis imports unrestricted federal funds to expand private and religious school choice—yet his own department works to defund a religious preschool for refusing to conform to the exact ideological rules many parents seek to escape through choice.
This double standard sits atop a broader record of public education failure under Polis’s watch. Despite eliminating the Budget Stabilization Factor and boosting per-pupil funding by over 50 percent (reaching ~$12,272 by 2026-27), Colorado ranks only 33rd nationally. Proficiency rates remain low: fewer than half of students meet English expectations, and about one-third meet math standards. Enrollment declines have forced budget adjustments threatening millions in district funding, while ideological curricula—pushing gender ideology into early grades—have sparked parental rights lawsuits and widespread frustration.
By reaching for Trump’s federal program, Polis tacitly admits the public system he leads cannot meet families’ needs. By simultaneously appealing to punish a Christian preschool for holding traditional beliefs, he reveals his administration’s willingness to use state power to enforce DEI conformity—even as he celebrates private choice when the money comes from Washington.
Governor Polis bears direct responsibility for this contradiction. He oversees a public education system riddled with mediocrity and oversight failures, fights to restrict religious choice at the state level, and then grabs federal funds to expand the very options he limits at home. Colorado families deserve better: leadership that stops imposing gender ideology on faith-based schools and starts prioritizing core academics and genuine parental choice—without the hypocrisy.
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