The Supreme Court next month will weigh the legality of the nation’s first religious charter school.
At stake in the case are the rights of parents to send their children to a religious school that they may not be able to afford without the benefit of public school funding.
Jim Campbell, chief legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, will argue the case on behalf of the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, which sought to make St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School the nation’s first religious charter school.
Oklahoma’s Attorney General Gentner Drummond challenged the charter board’s contract with the Catholic school, saying the religious institution would become a public actor in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion to ensure the separation of church and state.
“The most recent Supreme Court precedent says that Oklahoma ’may provide a strictly secular education in its public schools,’” Mr. Drummond said. “The Oklahoma Legislature, with a Republican supermajority in both chambers, has consistently defined Oklahoma charter schools as public schools. As a result, I have an obligation to defend Oklahoma’s law.”
The justices will hear the case on April 30.
Oklahoma’s highest court sided with Mr. Drummond in preventing the charter school board’s contract with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
At least four justices voted in favor of reviewing the dispute. If the high court sides with the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School will become the nation’s first religious charter school. A charter school is publicly funded but independently operated, providing parents another option outside of the traditional public zoned school.
“Catholic education, in general, has an absolutely phenomenal pedigree,” said Mr. Campbell. “To open up that opportunity to kids who couldn’t otherwise afford it, that could really be a game changer for families in states like Oklahoma and others that might follow the same model.”
“We think there are a lot of parents out there that want more options for their kids and we know it because we hear it when we talk to them. Some of them want their kids educated consistent with their religious beliefs,” he said.
Mr. Campbell said recent precedent is on his client’s side.
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a church that challenged its exclusion from applying for a Missouri grant for playground restoration projects. The justices said public programs cannot single out religious groups and ban them from participating in public benefits afforded to others.
The justices applied that same principle to disputes concerning a school tax credit and a tuition assistance program.
“All three of those cases apply to this Oklahoma case we are dealing with, and establish the principle that when you create one of these programs — including financial aid for students to attend school — you can’t exclude religious groups,” Mr. Campbell said.
Furthermore, he said, school choice has proven to be good for families.
“Kids that are in charter schools are doing very well. Specifically, kids in Oklahoma, the kids who are attending charter schools are outperforming their peers that are in traditional public schools, so we need to provide these kids with more options,” he said.
The dispute split Republicans in the state.
Oklahoma Gov. J. Kevin Stitt has said his state’s attorney general has shown hostility toward religion by excluding the Catholic school from participating in its charger program.
“The [Office of Attorney General] has repeatedly justified the discriminatory exclusion of a Catholic institution from the benefit of a school charter with intolerance and open hostility toward other religions,” he wrote in his brief backing the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board.
In his filing, Mr. Drummond said the Catholic school planned to continue its “evangelizing mission of the church” while serving as a public institution.
“Because Oklahoma’s charter schools are public schools, Oklahoma may provide a strictly secular education in its [charter schools],’” it said.
The case is Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond.
A decision is expected by the end of June.
