Marine turned homeschool mom sues Oregon district over denied reimbursement for Christian curriculum

A Marine veteran and mother of five is suing an Oregon school district, alleging officials denied reimbursement for academic curriculum solely because the books reflected a .

Tessa Bulzan, who left a six-figure job after an incident at her childrens school conflicted with her moral and biblical beliefs, joined Hillsboro School Districts in July 2025. She says the district initially approved her Christian curriculum as academically valid before denying reimbursement months later.

"There was an incident where a teacher said something against our moral and , and it was so convicting and, after a lot of prayer, my husband and I decided that I would quit my six-figure job and I would become a stay-at-home mother and start homeschooling our children," Bulzan told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "And so far, it's been the best decision we've ever made."

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Bulzan said joining Hillsboros homeschool partnership program felt like an answer to prayer, particularly because homeschooling was expensive, and her husband was earning less than $50,000 in his new job.

She said the family was encouraged to learn that the Christian , including Abeka and Classical Conversations, met the districts academic requirements.

"Then in January, when we went to go reimburse or seek reimbursement for that curriculum, we were denied solely on its author's biblical world beliefs," Bulzan said.

Bulzan said she was shocked and devastated when her reimbursement request was denied because the family had planned to use the money for extracurricular activities and additional curriculum.

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She said she questioned an administrator about why the district would reject academically rigorous core materials, including a cursive book used to help her daughter, who . According to Bulzan, the administrator acknowledged that there was no comparable alternative at the same academic level but said the materials could not be funded because of the authors biblical worldview, references to God and incidental Scripture.

"One-hundred percent, it ," Bulzan said. "When I first started the program, I was told that all of my curriculum not only met the standards of the school board and the state of Oregon, but it excelled and went past most of their standards for all of their core."

"So, math, arithmetic, writing, grammar, all of these books that I was using to satisfy their academic requirements were all being accepted and there was no argument, there was no denial of that," she continued. "When I was denied, I wanted to understand, is it just because it's the Bible or and my Christian beliefs, or is it because they just are trying to be neutral? They're trying to make sure that everybody has a fair play in the reimbursement process?"

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Bulzan said that after some investigation on her part, she felt as if she was being singled out.

"What I quickly realized is that that's not true, that they were singling me out as a Christian because I bought two different books with very, very secular and very opposing worldviews that I, in my opinion, should not be taught or be within the school district," she said. 

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