Minnesota has incentivized high school students for four decades to enroll in post-secondary courses, paying for their tuition and textbooks at public and private colleges.
But the Land of 10,000 Lakes may have to sink the entire "postsecondary enrollment option" (PSEO) and start over based on its micromanagement of which religious colleges are eligible.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, nominated by President Donald Trump, issued a stunning rebuke to the Minnesota Department of Education by striking down the whole 2023 law that bans colleges from the program if they require students to submit "faith statements" or follow lifestyle expectations on sexuality and gender identity.
She issued summary judgment in favor of Crown College and the University of Northwestern St. Paul, which together received about $39 million in PSEO payments in the six years before the law, and parents Melinda and Mark Loe and Dawn Erickson, who seek to use PSEO for their children "at religious schools of their choosing," while rejecting the state's counterclaims.
