Oklahoma is becoming a battleground for the fight to protect the separation of Church and State.
The online charter school, St. Isidore of Seville, has set off a series of court battles in Oklahoma. Approved to be the first publicly funded religious charter school in the nation, St. Isidore will be run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma. The school aims to enable students to “be immersed in a robust liberal arts program that opens the student to the best of the Catholic intellectual tradition.” As an online school, St. Isidore will ensure that students across Oklahoma with limited access to Catholic schools have the opportunity to enroll. While the school has good intentions, a religious charter school funded by the public violates the Oklahoma State and U.S. constitutions.
Acknowledging this violation, Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued to stop the state board from funding the school. Drummond filed the lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court against the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board. In keeping with the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit says, “Make no mistake, if the Catholic Church were permitted to have a public virtual charter school, a reckoning will follow in which this state will be faced with the unprecedented quandary of processing requests to directly fund all petitioning sectarian groups.”
In June, the school board voted 3-2 to approve the Catholic Archdiocese’s application to establish the school. The application includes the Archdiocese vision, stating the school “participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.”
The Oklahoma Constitution prohibits public money or property from being used for the use or benefit of any church or system of religion; nearly 60% of Oklahoma voters rejected a proposal in 2016 to remove this language from the constitution. The school board’s approval of St. Isidore’s establishment violates the beliefs of Oklahomans who wish that their hard-earned dollar is not used towards a sectarian school. However, the approval of St. Isidore does not come as a shock in a state that often seems to cross the line between Church and State. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks openly about his Christian faith and received criticism from religious and non-religious groups for saying in a prayer that he claimed “every square inch” of Oklahoma for Jesus and to “have his way” with the education system. Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has endorsed recommendations to hang the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, require that students be given a minute before school for prayer or reflection, teach the Bible and train public school history teachers in Oklahoma to use curriculum from a conservative Christian private school in Michigan.
This rise of Christian Nationalism is a huge threat to America’s public school system, which already lacks equitable resources, adequately trained teachers and a cohesive curriculum that focuses on teaching children the facts. The collapse of our public education system at the hands of Christian Nationalists is seen in conservative-led efforts to ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State fears that Christian Nationalism will take over public schools. Her organization represents those of us who believe that the battle over St. Isidore is more significant than just one charter school; it represents a dangerous precedent that can take hold nationwide, threatening the religious freedom of Oklahoma public school families and taxpayers. If St. Isidore successfully receives taxpayer funding, other Republican states are set up to follow suit.
