Oklahoma approved the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school on Monday, where Catholic teachings will be included in classes. The Oklahoma State Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to approve the proposal, paving the way for a constitutional debate over whether taxpayer money can be used to directly subsidize such schools.
The charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, will be managed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. Religious teachings would be incorporated into the curriculum.
A charter school, for example, is a sort of public school that is independently controlled but supported by taxpayers. They make up only a minor percentage of the US school system (8%).
The judgment was not welcomed by the state attorney general, who declared it “unconstitutional” and threatened legal action since it was “contrary to Oklahoma law.”
“It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated their oath to fund religious schools with our tax dollars. In doing so, these members have exposed themselves and the state to potential legal action that could be costly,” said Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
The Catholic Church is bracing itself for a court war
However, St. Isidore’s administration stated that they were prepared for the legal issues that might befall them.
“We are elated that the board agreed with our argument and application for the nation’s first religious charter school,” said Brett Farley, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma which represents the Church on policy issues and is behind the proposal.
“We invite the challenge, for the sake of the country and answering that question,” she added.
Meanwhile, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, who appointed the school board members, praised the decision, calling it “a win for religious liberty and education freedom in our great state”.
“Oklahomans support religious liberty for all and support an increasingly innovative educational system that expands choice,” he said.
The attitude of the United States Supreme Court on religious schools
The idea will almost probably be contested in court, but it reflects a growing trend in the United States in which conservatives are advocating for more religious schools.
The US Supreme Court, which currently has a conservative majority of 6-to-3, has already weighed in on channeling taxpayer funds to religious institutions. The Supreme Court held in separate opinions in 2020 and 2022 that the states of Montana and Maine could not exclude religious schools from state programs that allowed parents to use government-funded scholarships.
According to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court’s rules do not require states to support religious education, but if a state is providing subsidies to any private schools, religious schools may not be discriminated against.