SCOTUS hears arguments for nation’s first religious public charter school

The U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments on Wednesday over whether an all-online Catholic school in Oklahoma may be designated as a publicly funded charter school. The state’s virtual charter school board approved an application to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in 2023, slated as the first religious public charter school in the nation. However, the state supreme court invalidated the contract at the request of state officials. The school and the charter board now seek an appeal ruling from the nation’s highest court. Charter schools function outside the state’s public education system, but are publicly funded and remain free for students to attend.

What’s the problem with a religious charter school? Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond previously noted that state law requires charter schools to be nonsectarian in their operations and programming. State attorneys also argued that the school should be considered a government entity because it received public funding. The school would be subject to government regulations that throttle its free right to exercise religion, the state noted. A ruling in favor of St. Isidore would create a stunning precedent allowing states to create and fund religious institutions, argued attorney Gregory Garre, representing Oklahoma.

Attorney James Campbell represented the charter board and St. Isidore before the high court and noted that the state’s charter school program specializes in diverse programs and subject matter. State law seemed to view religion as the wrong kind of diversity, Campbell argued. The state discriminated against St. Isidore’s on the basis of religion when it sought to cancel the contract and violated the school’s constitutional right to exercise religion, he added. Campbell argued that the school could not be considered a public entity because it was neither created nor controlled by the government.