Legal fight over first-ever Catholic charter school turns to Supreme Court

October 10, 2024

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling and open the door for approval of the nation’s first faith-based charter school.

The Christian Post reports that the high court is being asked to take up the case of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, et al. v. Drummond on religious liberty grounds.

If allowed to launch, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the first religious charter school in the U.S.

According to the Christian Post, the petition for a writ of certiorari was filed on Monday and reads:

“Respondent, the Oklahoma Attorney General, says his State can exclude religious charter schools because state law labels them ‘public school[s] established by contract’ — and that label somehow transforms a privately owned and operated school’s religious education into state action by a state entity,”

The writ continues, “The Oklahoma Supreme Court accepted that argument. … That ruling violates this Court’s recent cases. And the underlying state-action ruling implicates a circuit split even Respondent agrees this Court should resolve.”

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 in June 2023 to approve the charter application for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was to be overseen by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa.

This past June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 7-1 against the charter school, with the majority opinion concluding that the approval of the school violated the state constitution and stating:

“The framers’ intent is clear: the state is prohibited from using public money for the ‘use, benefit or support of a sect or system of religion. The St. Isidore Contract violates the plain terms of Article 2, Section 5 of the Oklahoma Constitution.”

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