Hello from Erica on Chalkbeat’s national desk. This week’s big story looks at the religious freedom case the Supreme Court will take up next week. Keep reading for the education issues we’re watching this election season, the ed-tech tools swept up in New York City’s AI ban, and the return of libraries in one urban district. 

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The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up a case next week that could yet again redraw the line of church-state separation. It involves two Catholic preschools in Colorado, but the implications are much bigger.

The question is not whether religious schools can participate in the state’s public preschool program, which subsidizes care for 4-year-olds. Lots of religious schools do participate. Plus the Supreme Court already answered that question in a previous ruling that found states cannot exclude religious schools from state voucher programs. 

The question is whether Colorado can require schools to agree to nondiscrimination rules as a condition of receiving public money. 

The preschools say it would violate their faith to admit gay or transgender students or children whose parents are gay or transgender. Nick Reaves, an attorney from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, says the state has put actual Catholic families in a bind — requiring them to pay more for an education that matches their values — to avoid a speculative harm.

“Colorado hasn’t pointed to actual families who oppose the teachings of the Catholic Church but want to send their kids to a Catholic preschool,” he said.

Colorado says it’s not trying to tell the Catholic preschools what to teach, but it does have an obligation to ensure participating schools are open to all students. In rural communities, in particular, there might only be a few preschools, so access matters.

“If the preschools prevail, the state is going to be forced to fund that type of discrimination,” said Patrick Cremin, a lawyer with the Education Law Center who co-signed an amicus brief in support of Colorado’s position.

So far, the lower courts have sided with Colorado. That was also the case in Maine, where the state wants to enforce nondiscrimination requirements on private schools that serve students in communities with no public schools. 

The case is being closely watched across the political spectrum. Amicus briefs have been filed by advocates for LGBTQ rights and students with disabilities, by religious educators on both sides of the issue, and by prominent school choice advocacy groups, who say that for school choice to work, schools can’t all fit the government mold. 

Read the full story here.

The 2026 election will probably turn on voter sentiment about the price of gas and the state of our democracy. But education is on the ballot! Red-state Dems are running on promises to rein in voucher programs. In blue states, voters are being asked to consider restrictions on transgender student athletes. And in at least one governor’s race, the candidates are talking seriously about student learning. Here’s what we’re watching.

Candidates are also talking about screen time and AI in the classroom, but neither party has staked out clear ground. School board members are limiting ed tech. Congress could take up AI guardrails. The appropriate use of technology in the classroom is a matter of major policy concern right now. That means it’s political, but it’s not yet obviously partisan.

Five Democratic governors wrote a letter asking important questions about the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit. They wanted to better understand their own oversight obligations, whether the federal government will provide dedicated funding for that work, and how to ensure low-income students benefit. The letter, whose signatories include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, went out a few days after Michigan’s attorney general argued the program may violate that state’s constitution.  

That’s how much Education Secretary Linda McMahon wants to spend on new office furniture as she seeks to close down the Education Department entirely. The New York Times reports that McMahon said the existing furniture “cannot be configurationally or aesthetically integrated” into new office space where staff are working, after leaving the dedicated office building they had used since 1961. 

That was Allan Carver, superintendent of schools in Siskiyou County, California, on why it’s so hard to recruit school board candidates. The job has become less appealing as education politics heated up during and after the pandemic, he said. 

An analysis by EdSource found that 62% of open California school board seats are not contested. They might have just one candidate, making that person the winner by default, or they might have no one running at all. The problem is more acute in rural areas. And a state law that increased pay for school board members doesn’t seem to be helping much.