Supreme Court to Hear Case About Nation’s First Publicly Funded Religious School

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Supreme Court to Hear Case About Nation’s First Publicly Funded Religious School

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on whether the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school should allowed to be open in Oklahoma. 

The justices said Friday they would seek to review the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to reject the state school board’s approval of the Catholic Church’s application to open a charter school. 

As CBN News reported, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma City was set to begin classes in August 2023, but a group of parents, clergy members, and education activists filed a lawsuit to block state funding for the school.

The Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee along with nine other plaintiffs argued the charter school contradicts a statute that requires charter schools to be nonsectarian – meaning they cannot adhere to a specific religious sect. 

Although the school does not require students to be Catholic, they plan to adhere to biblical views on ******* orientation and gender identity.

“You can’t use people’s tax dollars to promote or establish religion,” one of the plaintiffs, the Rev. Lori Walke of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, told The Oklahoman.

Earlier in 2023, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City asked Oklahoma taxpayers to support the development of a virtual charter school shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private schools could receive public funds from school voucher programs and government grants.

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Initially, the Oklahoma school board unanimously shot down the school’s 400-page application citing eight concerns that needed to be addressed before approval. 

The school made the appropriate accommodations for those requirements and the school board approved it in June despite a requirement that charter schools “be nonsectarian” in their “programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations.”

“This is a win for religious liberty and education freedom in our great state, and I am encouraged by these efforts to give parents more options when it comes to their child’s education,” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt wrote in a statement at the time. 

Although its approval was considered a win by some, others immediately took issue with it and threatened to sue.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond told the board that allowing Oklahoma’s taxpayers to have a religious charter choice would violate the Oklahoma Constitution.

“The approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers,” Drummond argued. “…These members have exposed themselves and the state to potential legal action that could be costly.”

“We’ve taken a step down a slippery slope that will result someday in state-funded Satanic schools, state-funded Sharia schools,” he later told KFOR-TV. “This is not what Oklahomans nor our Constitution, nor the U.S. Constitution permit.”

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters told

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he is fighting “on every front for the parents of Oklahoma.”

“I’ve been advocating for this school. It’s the first Christian charter school in the country. We are very excited to have that here in Oklahoma, but again, we’ve got some legal hurdles to overcome,” he said. 

Last June, the Oklahoma high court held a 7-1 vote that a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the section of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment that prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

“Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” Justice James Winchester, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian. However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state.”

Justice Dana Kuehn wrote in the dissent that excluding St. Isidore from operating a charter school based solely on its religious affiliation would violate a different section of the First Amendment that protects religious freedom.

The case will most likely be argued before the Supreme Court in late April and decided by early summer. 

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