AG Paxton sues Texas higher education agency over work-study programs, alleging religious discrimination

Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing his own state’s higher education agency over three work study programs it offers that Paxton alleges discriminate against religious students. He is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the enforcement of program limitations.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board offers work-study programs as a financial aid option for low-income students, matching Texas residents with jobs partially funded by the State of Texas. The three work-study programs named in Paxton’s suit include: Texas College Work-Study, Texas Working Off-Campus and Texas Innovative Adult Career Education Grant.

The federal government also offers a work-study program where religious institutions can benefit, but the universities cannot use the funds for religious work, including maintenance or construction of a worship facility or to fund religious instruction. Off-campus funded jobs must be in the public’s interest. There are 47 religious colleges and universities in Texas, according to CollegeSimply.

Paxton’s lawsuit accuses the three Texas programs of violating students’ First Amendment right to religious freedom in “prohibiting participants from engaging in sectarian activities, including sectarian courses of study, to be eligible to receive benefits” and therefore infringing on students' religious freedom.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/ag-paxton-sues-thecb-work-study-higher-ed-21181598.php

“This amounts to a wholesale exclusion of certain people—no matter how needy—from state benefits under the program based solely on the religious character of their course of study,” the suit argues. “Banning religious instruction, worship, and proselytization directly burdens religious expression and conditions the receipt of State benefits on nonreligious use.”