Virginia should not make students choose between faith and financial aid

Religious college students in Virginia should not have to choose between following their religious calling and receiving the same educational assistance available to other students.

That is the central issue in Hall v. Fleming, a case that presents the Supreme Court of the United States with an opportunity to correct a troubling anomaly in its First Amendment jurisprudence. 

Virginia offers the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant to eligible residents attending private, nonprofit colleges and universities in the Commonwealth. Eligible students can receive thousands of dollars toward their education. But Virginia draws a line when a student chooses certain religious majors.

Liberty University student Bethany Hall crossed that line and lost her grant.

Hall entered Liberty intending to study Music Education: Choral. She was initially approved for a tuition assistance grant. But during her freshman year, she “heard God’s call” to ministry and changed her major to Youth Ministries. That change made her ineligible for the assistance. She subsequently changed her major to Christian Leadership and Church Ministries and ultimately to Music and Worship. Those programs were likewise classified as ineligible religious programs.

Her choice of Music and Worship is particularly important. Hall is pursuing an education consistent with what she believes is her religious vocation: ministering through music and worship to young people. Rather than abandon that calling to........

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