Monday, February 10, 2025

SCOTUS will hear Okla. religious charter school case

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The Supreme Court said today that it would hear a case from the Oklahoma Supreme Court that invalidated the decision by the state’s charter school board to approve an application by the Catholic Church to open a charter school, the Associated Press reports.

(Oklahoma Historical Society)

The case of St Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School, which was set to open for its first 200 students last fall, with part of its mission being to evangelize its students in the Catholic faith, will ultimately decide whether it is constitutional for states to prohibit public funds from being used to fund a religious school.

Charter schools are, by definition, public schools, but they are privately run, in many cases by nonprofit organizations. Here that nonprofit entity is the Catholic Church.

The charter school situation in Oklahoma is no different. “Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” Justice James Winchester wrote in the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s 7-1 majority opinion. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.”

St Isidore makes no claim to be nonsectarian, so the decision of the court seems justified. But excluding St Isidore from operating a charter school based solely on its religious affiliation might violate a different part of the First Amendment — the Free Exercise Clause, which protects religious freedom.

The case is likely to be argued before the Supreme Court in April, with a decision expected in early summer.

Paul Katulahttps://news.schoolsdo.org
Paul Katula is the executive editor of the Voxitatis Research Foundation, which publishes this blog. For more information, see the About page.

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