Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against St. Isidore school, canceling its charter status.
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 30 seemed inclined to overturn an Oklahoma court ruling denying authorization for the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself and did not participate in the case known as Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond. The respondent is Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma’s attorney general.
The school concerned is the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School (SISVC), a K–12 school in Oklahoma City approved by the school board.
A charter school is a school that accepts funding from the government but operates independently outside of the established state school system.
The school’s petition, filed in October 202,4 states that the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act permits most “private organizations” to found charter schools by making a contract with a sponsor, but religious organizations are not eligible.
“A sponsor may not authorize a charter school or program that is affiliated with a nonpublic sectarian school or religious institution,” the statute reads. The charter school has to be “nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations,” it states.
The petition states that the Oklahoma Constitution provides that the state should maintain a “system of public schools … free from sectarian control.”
In 2023, Catholic nonprofit corporation St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School Inc. was founded by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to operate the charter school, according to the petition. The school offers “a learning opportunity for students who want and desire a quality Catholic education, but for reasons of accessibility to a brick-and-mortar location or due to cost, cannot currently make it a reality.”
The board approved the school’s application in June 2023. As one board member said at the time, the board had to approve the application because failing to do so would violate the U.S. Constitution’s free exercise clause, which all board members had sworn to uphold, according to the petition.
Drummond sued in October 2023, asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to cancel the school’s contract and declare it violates the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, state law, and the state constitution.
