Oklahoma’s charter school board on Monday approved the opening of what will be the nation’s first taxpayer-funded Catholic school, provided the decision goes unchallenged in court.
The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board passed the proposal 3-2 with the help of a new member who provided the decisive vote, Tulsa World reported.
St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the country’s first religious charter school, which by definition is a publicly funded school that is privately run. Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative Clinic advised the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, which spearheaded the application for the school.
The process for St. Isidore of Seville started when Archbishop of Oklahoma City Paul Coakley notified the state in November 2021 that the archdiocese would be applying for authorization to form and operate a virtual charter school.
When the diocese previously attempted application approval in February, Oklahoma attorney general Gentner Drummond warned that a charter school run by a private religious organization would be a slippery slope to state-funded religion. He also said it would open the door to disputes between faiths over creating schools to represent each of them. In April, the state charter school board rejected the diocese’s application 5-0, concerned about state statutes and the Oklahoma Constitution, which prohibits the use of public money for religious purposes.
“While many Oklahomans undoubtedly support charter schools sponsored by various Christian faiths, the precedent created by approval of the … application will compel approval of similar applications by all faiths,” Drummond wrote in a letter obtained by Oklahoma News 4. “Unfortunately, the approval of a charter school by one faith will compel the approval of charter schools by all faiths, even those most Oklahomans would consider reprehensible and unworthy of public funding.”
Drummond’s opinion contradicted that of his predecessor, former state attorney general John O’Connor, who in early December said that religious institutions should be able to operate charter schools. The Oklahoma Charter Schools Act’s requirement that a charter school be “nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations” is likely unconstitutional, O’Connor said.
O’Connor said that the U.S. Supreme Court would not agree that “a state should be allowed to discriminate against religiously affiliated private participants who wish to establish and operate charter schools in accordance with their faith alongside other private participants.”
Barring any litigation that could disrupt its opening, the school is set to enroll 400 to 500 students in its first year, which would begin in the Fall of 2024, Oklahoma News 4 reported. The diocese and its leaders vowed to escalate the legal battle to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, the outlet noted.
Brett Farley, the executive director of Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, told the outlet that the school would run like a Catholic school and expand educational opportunities for kids and parents.
“We’re not talking about establishing a religion through religious charter schools,” Farley said. “All we’re talking about is an anchor carrying values and principles and virtues, so forth, as we’re already doing in our schools.”