A state governing board is set to reconsider the Catholic Church’s application for state sanctioning and taxpayer funding of what would be the nation’s first religious charter school.
In April, the five-member Statewide Virtual Charter School Board unanimously denied the sponsorship application for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
Catholic leaders took advantage of the opportunity afforded them under state law to take 30 days to revise and resubmit their charter school sponsorship application.
The revised application is set for a noon Monday vote by the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.
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If rejected, Catholic leaders could appeal to the Oklahoma State Board of Education for sponsorship.
Officials with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Diocese of Tulsa reportedly worked on the initial St. Isidore application for 18 months with the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic. This idea for a Catholic charter school is viewed by state church leaders and those Notre Dame-based lawyers as a possible test case to challenge separation of church and state laws across the nation.
The proposed St. Isidore would serve students in towns without Catholic schools and expand online course offerings to students in existing Catholic schools across the state.
The application has already been the source of extensive, mostly behind-the-scenes, legal tugs-of-war here in Oklahoma.
Former Attorney General John O’Connor, who was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, opened the door for the Catholic school charter application when he issued an advisory opinion shortly before he left office saying the state’s ban on publicly funded religious charter schools could be a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
His nonbinding, written advice was that the state should not enforce its law that says all charter school operations should be nonsectarian.
Then, shortly after taking office, newly elected Attorney General Gentner Drummond withdrew O’Connor’s opinion and cautioned the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board against sponsoring the taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school.
Subsequently, the Attorney General’s Office, which provides legal counsel to the virtual charter school board, has advised that it might not be able to represent individual board members if they were sued for approving the Catholic charter school application.
Board Chairman Robert Franklin of Tulsa has said he expects that the board will be sued regardless of its final decision on the charter school application, as public school advocacy groups and national separation of church and state groups are monitoring the developments closely.
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Tulsa World Staff Writer Andrea Eger talks with Editor Jason Collington about the efforts by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to get state sponsorship and taxpayer funding for what would be the first religious charter school in the country. The pitch is before the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.
