Charitable Choice and Equal Treatment

Charitable Choice and Equal Treatment

Charitable Choice is the best-known reform of the faith-based initiative. People often use “Charitable Choice” as a short-hand for the initiative and for the idea that the government ought to treat fairly all applicants for support, whether they are secular, religiously affiliated, or overtly faith-based. But this usage is not accurate.

First adopted as part of welfare reform in 1996, the Charitable Choice rules create equal opportunity for faith-based service providers. However, these standards apply only to a few federal programs. To ensure equal opportunity in the many other social services that the federal government supports, the federal government has adopted Equal Treatment regulations, which are similar to Charitable Choice. Both sets of rules apply whether the federal funds are used by federal officials or by their state or local partners to buy services for the needy. For details on the two sets of standards, how they are the same and different, and when they apply, go to Church-State Standards.