California Father Says Charter School Rejected Homeschool Books That Mentioned God, Forcing Family to Pay

John Woolard, a California father of five, says the purchases he wanted to make for his children's education kept coming back denied for one reason: the books mentioned God.

Woolard and his wife educate their children at home through a public charter school program. He told Fox News Digital that the arrangement worked fine at first. Then, he says, the family learned that their curriculum choices were being reviewed for religious content.

"Any book or curriculum purchase that we wanted to make that referenced God or faith in even, like, an adjacent sort of way was being denied," Woolard said. He called the practice a "publisher blacklist" and said it reached beyond explicitly Christian instructional materials. In his telling, even books examining the religious beliefs of America's Founding Fathers were turned down. He said he would have expected that subject to be uncontroversial.

The money matters here as much as the principle. Woolard said the charter program gave a family with five children an affordable way to tailor lessons to each child's needs. When a purchase was rejected, the cost shifted to the household. In his words, the family has to pay for those resources out of pocket, while he says other parents can obtain educational materials with public funds.

He said he pressed school officials for an explanation. He asked whether the curriculum met California standards and whether it was academically rigorous enough. According to Woolard, the answer to both was yes. He says he then put the question plainly: if that was so, the only objection was the faith component. He said both a teacher and a principal acknowledged that it was. "What that tells me is that equality only extends as far as what the government approves," he said.

Stephanie Taub, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, characterized the policy as discriminatory. She told Fox News Digital that California has a policy singling out parents who want to give their children a faith-based education, and that it excludes them from homeschooling benefits otherwise available to others.

The family lost in a lower court and is now asking the Supreme Court to take the case. Taub said the justices are considering whether to hear it, and she expects to learn in the next few months whether they will.

Woolard said he hopes the Court will tell California it got the decision wrong and show it how to correct course. He added that such a ruling could "break open California for a lot of families" seeking similar changes.

A spokesperson for the California Department of Education told Fox News Digital the department cannot comment on pending litigation. The account of what school staff said comes from Woolard, and the school's side is not described in the reporting. What to watch is whether the Supreme Court agrees to review the case, a decision expected within months.