Andrea Eger
Tulsa World Staff Writer
Catholic leaders in Oklahoma and a state board that previously offered them authorization are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in their quest to establish the nation’s first religious charter school.
Attorneys for the Statewide Charter School Board and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School filed separate petitions for writs of certiorari on Monday, with both parties seeking Supreme Court review of their cases against Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
The securing of state sanctioning and public dollars for St. Isidore, which is unabashed in its offering of religious teachings, policies and hiring practices, is viewed nationally as a possible test case of separation of church and state laws.
Oklahoma Catholic leaders claim that charter schools are actually private schools and that denying them access to government funding to open one to provide greater access to Catholic school education across the state would violate their right to free exercise of religion.
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Their petition poses two questions for SCOTUS to consider:
1. “Whether the academic and pedagogical choices of a privately owned and run school constitute state action simply because it contracts with the state to offer a free educational option for interested students.”
2. “Whether a state violates the Free Exercise Clause by excluding privately run religious schools from the state’s charter school program solely because the schools are religious, or whether a state can justify such an exclusion by invoking anti-establishment interests that go further than the Establishment Clause requires.”
Drummond argued successfully before Oklahoma’s state Supreme Court to reverse what he believes to be “unlawful action” by the state governing board, which agreed to provide St. Isidore with state sanctioning and taxpayer funding appropriated for public education.
Oklahoma’s highest court ruled on June 25 that St. Isidore’s proposal to open a Catholic charter school is unconstitutional.
“I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all four million Oklahomans. This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan,” Drummond said in a written statement to the press on Monday afternoon. “My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law.”
St. Isidore is represented by attorneys in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia with the Dechert firm, as well as attorneys with the Religious Liberty Clinic of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana and Perri Dunn Attorneys in Oklahoma City.
“The Attorney General’s disregard for religious pluralism is offensive—and his outmoded views on the law are simply wrong,” said John Meiser, director of the Religious Liberty Clinic and associate clinical professor of Law at Notre Dame. “States — including Oklahoma — routinely partner with faith-based organizations like religious schools to serve the public. The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the government may not offer to support the good work of groups like these but then deny that opportunity to any and all organizations of faith. We hope the Court will correct the lower court’s blatant misreading of the First Amendment and open the doors to this vital opportunity for Oklahoma children.”
The Statewide Charter School Board is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group.
“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more choices, not fewer. There’s great irony in state officials who claim to be in favor of religious liberty discriminating against St. Isidore because of its Catholic beliefs,” ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler said Monday. “The U.S. Constitution protects St. Isidore’s freedom to operate according to its faith and supports the board’s decision to approve such learning options for Oklahoma families. Protecting the freedom of St. Isidore and other charter schools to operate according to their beliefs bolsters religious freedom across Oklahoma, which is why we are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take this important case.”
State Catholic leaders, who envisioned St. Isidore as a means of expanding their religious education offerings throughout the state, called off their planned August opening of St. Isidore school for a few hundred pre-enrolled students and the Statewide Charter School Board was forced to rescind its sponsorship contract with St. Isidore.
“Our hope — and a mission of Catholic education — is to serve the whole community by building new learning opportunities so that every child can thrive in a school that suits her own needs,” Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and chairman of the board of St. Isidore, said Monday in a written press statement. “Too many children in our state don’t have that chance. We want to help solve that problem by opening a school for children who find the available options unable to meet their needs and who lack the resources to consider other choices.”
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