Religious Leaders Sue to Stop Nation’s First Religious Public School

The Oklahoma State Capitol is seen in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Sept. 30, 2015. (Jon Herskovitz/Reuters)

Church leaders and parents joined a lawsuit on Monday to stop what would have become the nation’s first public religious school.

Rev. Lori Walke, senior minister at Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City and one of the plaintiffs in the case, told The Associated Press she joined the suit because she believes the creation of such a school endangers religious freedom.

“Creating a religious public charter school is not religious freedom,” Walke said. “Our churches already have the religious freedom to start our own schools if we choose to do so. And parents already have the freedom to send their children to those religious schools. But when we entangle religious schools to the government … we endanger religious freedom for all of us.”

In June, Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3–2 to approve an application from the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to open a Catholic school, St. Isidore of Seville.

Religious Liberty

Charter schools receive public funds, and Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, warned it would violate the U.S. Constitution.

“The board’s vote drove a stake in the heart of religious liberty,” he wrote in an op-ed.

Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Schools and one of the defendants named in the lawsuit, said the lawsuit itself was an “assault on religious liberty.”

“It’s an absolutely ridiculous lawsuit,” he said. “When they use the phrase separation of church and state, what they mean is that they want to run religion out of every institution, and that’s absolutely not what we’re going to be supporting here.”

Brett Farley, a lobbyist representing the diocese and archdiocese, said the lawsuit came as “no surprise,” as threat of legal action began early in the process.

“We remain confident that the Oklahoma court will ultimately agree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in favor of religious liberty,” Mr. Farley said.

Robert Franklin, the chair of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board said that though the lawsuit was “no surprise,” it was still “unsettling.”

“I think it puts Oklahoma taxpayers and the process under the microscope,” he said.

Lawsuit

Plaintiffs argue that public schools must “welcome and serve all students, regardless of a student’s background, beliefs, or abilities.”

The Catholic Archdiocese has said St. Isidore of Seville will be “Catholic in teaching, Catholic in employment and Catholic in every way.”

While religious schools have long existed in myriad forms, the plaintiffs argue that they have never been part of the public school system and “permitting otherwise would upend the legal framework.”

As such, they ask the court to prohibit the school from receiving state funding.

Catholic Experience

The lawsuit (pdf) also asserts that “St. Isidore will discriminate in student admissions, student discipline, and employment based on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other prohibited grounds.

Some of the parents who have joined the lawsuit have children with disabilities, such as autism, and say the school has not agreed to accommodate disabilities, and some have children who identify as LGBT.

While the selectivity in admissions and employment is the norm for a religious school, it it not the case for public schools.

The approved application for St. Isidore had been one the school updated to state it will accept students of “different faith or no faiths,” but explains that, given that it is a Catholic school, it would only admit the students if the students and family understand admissions mean adherence and respect for the “beliefs, expectations, policies, and procedures of the school.”

It explains that though the students do not have to be practicing Catholics themselves, the school experience will “reflect the Catholic understanding of each person as created in the image and likeness of God, called to lives of holiness and service.”

School Choice

Earlier this year, Republican leaders in Oklahoma approved an education package that included pay raises for public school teachers as well as a voucher-style tax credit program that families can use toward homeschooling or private schools, including religious private schools.

“We believe in putting parents in charge of their kids’ education,” said Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Once a bipartisan, grassroots effort, school choice has become a Republican platform as public schools adopt various Marxist ideologies.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has called on the legislature to put forward a school voucher program, which has yet to come to fruition.

Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia have also introduced similar measures, which are in varying stages.