A Colorado mother of three says her family was denied $12,000 in taxpayer-funded preschool benefits because she chose a Catholic education for her children, accusing the state of discriminating against religious families through a program promoted as universal.

Erika Nagle, whose children attend St. Mary Catholic School in Littleton, Colorado, told Fox News Digital that two of her children were denied access to the state's preschool funding program, leaving her family to cover additional education expenses.

"We are being excluded from this benefit because we are Catholic," Nagle said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "And so in a state that preaches inclusion, they are actively going out of their way to exclude a huge chunk of people because of our religious beliefs."

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CATHOLIC PARISH'S CHALLENGE AFTER COLORADO BARRED SCHOOLS FROM UNIVERSAL PRE-K PROGRAM

At the center of the dispute is Colorado's universal preschool program, which Nagle says provides more than $6,000 per eligible child for preschool education. Catholic schools challenging the program argue that the state's participation requirements unfairly burden their religious beliefs and admissions practices.

According to Becket, Colorado launched its preschool funding program in 2023, offering eligible families approximately $6,300 to cover 15 hours of preschool per week. The organization said the program was promoted as a universal benefit that would allow parents to choose among public, private and religious preschools, prompting Catholic families across the state to seek participation.

Nagle says the consequences go beyond her family's finances.

"We have had two preschools in the archdiocese that have been closed down," she said, arguing that the program is affecting Catholic school enrollment and pressuring families to abandon the religious education they want for their children.

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"The state is dangling a carrot over here, incentivizing people to leave their faith, to abandon the Catholic education that they want," she said.

Nagle argued that nearly every school has admissions criteria tailored to the community it serves, whether that means prioritizing neighborhood children, people who identify as LGBTQ, children with special needs or low-income families. She said St. Mary similarly prioritizes Catholic families while welcoming students whose families are willing to respect the school's religious teachings. Nagle questioned why the Catholic school's admissions practices should be treated differently.

"The state grants $6000 per family to be used during the year before kindergarten, so the year when they're in pre-K, which is technically the year before kindergarten, and you can use it at the school of your choice," Nagle said. "And so Catholics are forced to pay the price for the school of our choice, which is Catholic school. And so you have thousands of Coloradans that are being forced to pay more than anyone else."

The legal battle raises questions about the extent to which religious schools can participate in publicly funded education programs while maintaining faith-based admissions policies.

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"Colorado shouldn't force Catholic families to give up their choice, which is a faith-based school, and, you know, the state is letting other schools serve their communities, but they're not letting Catholic families serve their communities," Nagle said. "And to me, it also makes me wonder, is this by design, is this paving the way for godlessness or for what? Why can't Catholic families receive this benefit when there are other schools that were granted their exemption for other admissions requirements?"

The Supreme Court is hearing the case on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) said the department could not comment on pending litigation.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' office for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

FIRST ON FOX — Angel Studios is drawing a line in the sand against Hollywood's approach to entertainment, announcing sweeping new content standards that ban on-screen sex, nudity and certain profanity while promising millions of paying members the power to decide which movies and television shows make the cut.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Angel Studios co-founder and Chief Content Officer Jeff Harmon said the entertainment industry has increasingly lost touch with the families it once served, prompting his company to establish what it calls "The Angel Promise."

"I think Hollywood generally kind of lives in a bubble," Harmon said. "These are excellent craftsmen. They're the best storytellers in the world. Hollywood has built the best storytelling infrastructure in the world."

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"But at the same time, they've kind of drifted more and more away from the values-based audience that they used to serve," Harmon said. "And with that, in our view, as brothers and as fathers, as a father, Hollywood hasn't been giving me consistently what I need. Once in a while, you get a good one, but you have to sift through all these things to find your good movies and your good stories."

The new initiative, announced Thursday, establishes three core commitments governing Angel's entertainment offerings, namely, audience approval of content, strict standards involving sex and language, and expanded parental controls.

"We promise there's never going to be nudity, and there'll never be sex on screen," Harmon said, explaining that families participating in the Angel Guild will not have to worry about encountering such material when evaluating potential projects.

The company is also drawing a firm boundary around profanity, pledging that Angel's original productions will not misuse God's name.

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"This is a completely unique one," Harmon said. "This has never really happened in Hollywood history."

Harmon described the restriction as part of the company's effort to build trust with religious families.

"What we promise our viewers is that this timeless principle that's thousands of years old, and we're a very faith-friendly studio, is that we're not going to have misuse of God's name on the system on any Angel original content," Harmon said. "So any content we create. Where we are originating, meaning it comes to Angel first, those shows, those TV shows and movies, will not have misuse of God's name, so that families of faith, 'cause we're a faith-friendly studio, can trust that language won't be there."

Under the new standards, the company also prohibits use of the F-word in its stories and profanity in titles submitted for children ages 12 and younger.

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The announcement represents a significant effort to distinguish Angel from traditional Hollywood studios, with the company placing its audience at the center of decisions about what gets produced and distributed.

Harmon said the Angel Guild, which has approximately 3 million paying members, gives viewers an opportunity to approve or reject projects before they enter the company's entertainment ecosystem.

"This is the first time in history that a major Hollywood studio, or top 10 studio in the United States, has come and said, we're going to let the audience have a veto right," Harmon said.

Under Angel's stated policy, films and television series must receive a score of at least 70 out of 100 from Guild members to qualify for inclusion in its entertainment ecosystem.

Harmon said the founders' experiences raising children helped shape the new standards.

"Angel was co-founded by four brothers and a cousin," he said, adding that the founders have 34 children between them.

CREATING THE DEFINITIVE MOUNT RUSHMORE OF PIXAR MOVIES FROM A PARENTS' VIEWING PERSPECTIVE

The goal, he explained, was to create entertainment that parents could trust without having to sift through potentially objectionable content.

The third component of the Angel Promise focuses on parental controls. Angel says Guild members will help establish recommended age ratings and plain-language descriptions of potentially sensitive material, while new controls in the Angel app will allow parents to tailor viewing choices to their families.

Harmon said the broader ambition is to reshape the relationship between filmmakers and audiences.

"Our goal was to set out and try to fix this problem of kind of stepping out of the Hollywood bubble and stepping into middle America's shoes," he said.

The company says its Guild has paid out nearly $300 million to filmmakers, while Harmon said more than 100 films were available for members to vote on at the time of the interview.

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For Harmon, the new promise is about establishing permanent standards that will outlast any individual film, filmmaker or executive, and give families greater influence over the entertainment they consume.

Some of the studio's prominent recent films include "David" and "The King of Kings."

Portland Public Schools rescinded its trespass order against an Oregon mother over her opposition to the district's gender curriculum, according to a legal group representing the parent.

In August, Allison Roberts sued Portland Public Schools after she expressed concern last year over Meriwether Lewis Elementary School's decision to repaint its traditional rainbow pride flag into an "Intersex-Inclusive Progress" variant to include support for racial inclusion and transgender rights.

Roberts also discovered an "identity flower" assignment given to her 11-year-old child that asked students to identify and discuss their gender identity with classmates and teachers. 

After receiving what she described as an unsatisfactory response from the school, Roberts wrote an open letter to the community criticizing the school's policies, which she distributed on a public sidewalk outside school property.

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The school later accused Roberts of "harassment, intimidation and threatening behavior" as part of a pattern of "animus and harassment targeting vulnerable members of [the] community." The district issued Roberts a one-year trespass order barring her from attending school events, including her child's graduation ceremony.

According to the Liberty Justice Center, which represented Roberts, Portland Public Schools agreed to several concessions before a scheduled hearing on Roberts’ motion for a preliminary injunction. These included rescinding her campus ban, exempting her children from certain LGBTQ2SIA+-related curriculum requirements and reviewing its nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Portland Public Schools confirmed the school district "agreed to rescind the trespass notice in mid-November."

"PPS has and will continue to comply with all laws that serve and protect children," the district's statement read.

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Timothy Snowball, lead attorney for the Liberty Justice Center's PARENTS Initiative, called the concessions a "victory" and told Fox News Digital they were a sign of the school district recognizing that these actions were unconstitutional.

"The timing of this settlement is not a coincidence," he said. "Only two days before the negotiations started, the district was set on fighting Allison Roberts. But after an hour or two with a federal judge explaining to them why their conduct was unconstitutional, they immediately changed their plans.

"Just goes to show that the students aren’t the only ones in Portland who need an education on basic civics."

Another hearing on the district's policies is scheduled for Dec. 1 with a focus on policies Snowball said allow teachers to withhold information from parents.

EXCLUSIVE: RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT ACCUSED OF HIDING KIDS' GENDER TRANSITIONS FROM PARENTS

"Portland Public Schools tried to silence a mother who dared to question what was happening in her children’s school. Now the district has agreed to withdraw its warning, rescind its campus ban and recognize her right to speak freely," Snowball said in a separate statement.

"This is a major victory, not just for Allison Roberts, but for every parent who has been told to stay quiet and leave these decisions to school officials," the statement continued. 

"But the fight is not over. The district continues to defend policies that allow school officials, under certain circumstances, to withhold important information from parents about their own children.

"Parents have the fundamental right to direct their children’s upbringing and education. We intend to keep fighting until those rights are protected."

Roberts previously told Fox News Digital she had received widespread support for her legal efforts.

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"It has been heartening to see the outpouring of support from my local Portland community and from parents and grandparents across the country," she said. 

"I never wanted things to get to this point. But knowing that I'm fighting this battle not just for my family, but for millions of American families, reassures me that bringing this suit is the right thing to do."

Actor Mandy Patinkin has posted several videos on social media, including one on Friday, urging Jewish voters to support Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed if they're concerned about their "safety" in the country.

"Jewish safety depends on a real multiracial democracy, and Abdul is the one fighting to protect it," the "Homeland" and "The Princess Bride" actor said in one such video.

Patinkin, who is also Jewish, said that El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, was pushing a political movement attacking the "rights and dignity of certain people" and argued that El-Sayed was the only candidate fighting for democracy.

"Jewish safety is tied to the health of our democracy," Patinkin said. "We can’t protect one without protecting the other. And in this Senate race, Abdul is the candidate who understands that and is willing to fight for it." 

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Patinkin continued to voice his support for El-Sayed in another video posted on Sunday, in which he called out efforts to make people "afraid" of the Democratic candidate because of his name and Muslim background, suggesting the criticism was similar to how Jewish people have been treated because of their identity.

"It’s hard for me to hear Muslims and Arabs talked about this way without thinking about our own Jewish history," Patinkin said. "We know what it’s like to have people treat your identity as a reason to distrust you, to make you seem threatening just because of who you are. I’m not telling anyone what they have to believe about Abdul. I’m asking people to recognize that this kind of talk should sound familiar to Jews." 

"Who is going to protect the democracy that has helped keep Jews safe in America? Abdul," he added. "Who is going to stand up for the rights of all of us? Abdul. Because I believe protecting our community means protecting the democracy we all depend on. Please vote for Abdul El-Sayed and get him in the Senate seat."

Fox News Digital reached out to the El-Sayed and Rogers campaigns for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, criticized Patinkin's "lack of actual knowledge" about whether El-Sayed would support Jewish safety.

"Few candidates have expressed disdain for Jewish safety more than Abdul El-Sayed, who attempted to explain away a terror attack on Jewish preschoolers due to a war on terror 6,000 miles away, and who called the rescue of Jewish hostages from torture, rape, and murder, ‘genocide,’" Menken told Fox News Digital. 

El-Sayed caused controversy in March when he responded to an attack on a Michigan synagogue by saying "Hurt people, hurt people." Federal investigators say a gunman inspired and radicalized by Hezbollah crashed into the place of worship seeking to kill as many Jewish people as he could. The alleged attacker was a Lebanese-born man who a week earlier had lost relatives in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.

El-Sayed later apologized for his comments about the attack. 

Menken said the Democratic candidate "refused to endorse the right of Jews to their own identity, opinions, and self-governance, and campaigned alongside Hasan Piker until other Democrats prevailed upon him to stop. And, of course, when confronted about family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its genocidal antisemitism, El-Sayed has called it an attack on his religion." 

"To call Patinkin deluded and naive would be the height of understatement," the rabbi added. "El-Sayed's values are not those that made America a great and welcoming country."

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Patinkin previously supported New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's 2025 campaign, celebrating the first night of Hanukkah with the democratic socialist after he was elected. 

Throughout his campaign and since taking office, Mamdani has faced accusations of antisemitism.

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Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and Peter D'Abrosca contributed to this report.