The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear a pair of cases challenging whether states can ban religious schools from taking part in their taxpayer-funded charter school programs.
Oklahoma has denied St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School a place among its charter schools, citing the religious nature of its curriculum. Oklahoma says the school, in becoming a charter, would be a “public” actor and that would run afoul of the Constitution’s prohibition on entangling government and religion.
But the school and its backers say they are being treated differently than other charter school applicants because of their religion. That amounts to unconstitutional discrimination against its right to free exercise of religion, the school argued.
“This case presents the ideal vehicle to resolve that exceptionally important question,” St. Isidore told the justices last year in asking them to hear the case.
The charter school board had approved St. Isidore’s application but Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond went to the state’s Supreme Court to halt the application. That court sided with him.
St. Isidore says the issue is whether charter schools are state actors. Some lower courts have agreed with that notion, but others have not, the school said.
The school says merely receiving state money doesn’t make it an agent of the state.
But Mr. Gentner said the way Oklahoma’s law works, the school becomes entwined with the government. The charter board can order curriculum changes and impose admissions rules, for example. And, of course, the entity received public money.
He said St. Isidore’s case breaks new ground as the first time a public charter school has tried to fully adopt a religious curriculum.
He had urged the justices not to hear the case.
The court agreed to hear challenges by both St. Isidore and the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board.
It took at least four justices to grant review. The court said Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not take part in the decision to take the cases.
“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer,” said Jim Campbell, a lawyer at Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the charter board in the state Supreme Court proceedings. “The U.S. Constitution protects St. Isidore’s freedom to operate according to its faith and supports the board’s decision to approve such learning options for Oklahoma families.”
But groups opposing the school urged the justices to back the state ruling.
“Converting public schools into Sunday schools would be a dangerous sea change for democracy,” said Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, Education Law Center, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.