The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against public funding for a religious charter school, CNN and The New York Times report. It would have been the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school, but Oklahoma’s highest court blocked it. An appeal to the US Supreme Court is likely.
(Oklahoma Historical Society)St. Isidore, a proposed Catholic online school, was set to cater to students throughout Oklahoma, particularly those in rural areas seeking religious education. Instead of following the traditional Catholic school model of charging tuition, the school applied for a charter, which would have directed tax dollars to the school.
We reported last year that the charter had been approved, but the decision was immediately challenged by Attorney General Gentner Drummond. “The framers of the US Constitution and those who drafted Oklahoma’s Constitution clearly understood how best to protect religious freedom: by preventing the State from sponsoring any religion at all,” he said Tuesday. “Now Oklahomans can be assured that our tax dollars will not fund the teachings of Sharia Law or even Satanism.”
“Enforcing the St. Isidore contract would create a slippery slope,” the 6-2 majority wrote, directing the state to rescind its contract with St. Isidore.
The case was closely watched, as a decision the other way would have set a precedent that some argued would significantly impact the separation of church and state. If the school operated as a charter school, it would have effectively blurred the distinction between charters and vouchers, potentially leading to significant and far-reaching changes in the education system.
“The fact that Oklahoma’s ultra-conservative Governor Kevin Stitt and its State Commissioner of Education Ryan Walters strongly supported the religious charter school idea makes the decision even more startling,” wrote education historian and renowned author Diane Ravitch.
