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Politics

ACLU Sues to Block ‘First Religious Charter School in the U.S.’

By Mara Lafontaine · August 2, 2023

In brief…

  • Oklahoma's St. Isidore of Seville Statewide Catholic Virtual School, an online, K-12, Roman Catholic, is set to open this fall with taxpayer funding.
  • The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the school in a 3-2 vote.
  • A group of parents, backed by the ACLU, has filed a lawsuit to block public funding of the school.
  • St. Isidore's application says its program will include evangelizing to students.
  • The ACLU saidthe approval violates multiple state laws and was against the legal advice of the state's Republican attorney general.
  • Supporters of the school argue its public funding fits under state rules for school choice.
  • The state superintendent of public instruction views the school as chance to "end atheism as the state-sponsored religion."
The ACLU sued to block a new religious charter school in Oklahoma after it was approved for public funding.  Jennifer Boyer/ CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A new battle line in the war over school choice has emerged with the St. Isidore of Seville Statewide Catholic Virtual School, an online K-12 Roman-Catholic Charter school funded by Oklahoma taxpayers and slated to open this fall. On Monday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee to block state funding of the school, called “the first religious charter school in the U.S.”

Named for the patron saint of the internet, St. Isidore is an entirely online school. Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the school in a 3-2 vote. St. Isidore’s application states that its program will include evangelizing to students.

Previewing his legal case, the ACLU’s Dan Mach said, “In addition to violating multiple state laws, basic rules, which apply to anyone seeking to start a charter school, bar these schools from discriminating and prevent them from imposing religious views on students. Yet the state board approved the application by a 3-2 vote on June 5 against the legal advice even of the state’s Republican attorney general, who has unequivocally said that the approval of this school is unlawful.”

Supporters of the school argue that charter schools are private schools, even though taxpayers fund them, explained Beth Wallis, education reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma. “School choice is also a really hot topic in Oklahoma, as with a lot of the rest of the country. And by school choice, I mean subsidizing more private education with public dollars. This wave of school choice policy has really hit Oklahoma, and St. Isidore is certainly a part of that.” 

According to Wallis, the board members who voted in favor of the school say they did so as “a vote for religious liberty.”

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction and a nonvoting member of the charter school board, was even more direct, calling the establishment o St. Isidore an opportunity to “end atheism as the state-sponsored religion.”