After Oklahoma voted to establish the first-ever state-sponsored, virtual religious charter school in the United States last June, several civil rights groups have moved to oppose state funding for the institution, setting a fierce debate on religious liberties in public education.
The Guardian details FFRF's lawsuit against the U.S.'s first state-sponsored religious charter school.
Read here: https://t.co/N2xT1vYJSE— FFRF (@FFRF) August 14, 2023
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with other organizations such as the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Education Law Center, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, filed a lawsuit on August 7th on behalf of nearly a dozen plaintiffs including parents, education activists, and faith leaders seeking to prevent the Oklahoma state government from funding and sponsoring the St Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
The lawsuit argues that the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board (SVCSB) violated the Oklahoma state constitution, the state’s Chater Schools Act, and even the board’s own regulations when it voted 3-2 to approve the application of St Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Aside from St. Isidore and the SVCSB, the lawsuit also names the Oklahoma state education department and state superintendent as defendants.
Violation of constitutional separation of church and state!
— Progressive Patriot - for Social Democracy (@WillDavey2) August 13, 2023
Charter schools are a type of public school in the United States that independently runs from the established school system in the state it is in, and it receives funds from taxpayers. Should their application be approved, St. Isidore would join the dozens of charter schools in the country.
The lawsuit also said that St. Isidore refused to follow the legal requirements applicable to state charter schools, including prohibitions against discrimination. It insisted that the school will, in fact, “discriminate in admissions, discipline, and employment based on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other protected characteristics.”
Oh hell no.
— Elizabeth C Clyde (@ClydejeCom) August 14, 2023
It also argued that the online religious charter school “asserts a right to discriminate against students on the basis of disability,” and its application failed to comply with the board’s regulations that would require the school to “demonstrate that it would provide adequate services to students with disabilities.”
Because the Diocese of Tulsa and the local Archdiocese of Oklahoma City will run and oversee St. Isidore, the school will violate the board’s regulations that require charter schools to be independent of their educational management organization.
The suit also alleges that as a charter school, St. Isidore violates the Oklahoma state constitution and the state’s Charter Schools Act since the school will “provide a religious education and indoctrinate its students in Catholic religious beliefs” and adding that in its application, St. Isidore “will be a place … of evangelization” that “participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church.”
The school is slated to go online in the fall of 2024 but is already facing legal challenges. On July 31, the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee filed a lawsuit to block the school from receiving taxpayer funds.https://t.co/iwobaBL4wV
— The Thinking Atheist (@ThinkingAtheist) August 11, 2023
Erin Brewer, the vice-chair of the non-profit Oklahoma parent legislative action committee and the lead plaintiff of the lawsuit, condemned what she describes as “state-sponsored religion” and added that “our kids have the right to religious freedom and for the state to sponsor religious education and indoctrination, I think it is wrong.”
Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma’s Republican state attorney general, said that the approval of St. Isidore was “unconstitutional” and added that “the approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers.”
He also said that St. Isidore’s approval would be a “step down a slippery slope that will result someday in state-funded Satanic schools, state-funded Sharia schools.”
The SVCSB declined to comment on the pending litigation, while Brett Farley, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, doubled down on his support for state funding of St. Isidore and added that “the only thing that would stop this is a court decision telling us we can’t do it.”
