Catholic charter school seeks to add options for families in rural areas

May 16—An application for a Catholic virtual charter school has a small window of time left to make changes before being reconsidered by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board on May 25.

In January, Saint Isodore of Seville Catholic Virtual School applied as a statewide virtual charter school after former Attorney General John O'Connor stated in an opinion that he believed the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act is unconstitutional and discriminates against religious schools.

But on Feb. 23, newly elected Attorney General Gentner Drummond withdrew the opinion issued by his predecessor, stating that the opinion "misuses the concept of religious liberty by employing it as a means to justify state-funded religion."

"Since then, we're just stuck in the middle of a moment," said Lara Schuler, senior director of Catholic Education for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. "We're in the process of making corrections to our application, which is a commonly asked for thing for any school applying to be a charter school. This is not unusual and we will submit those within the deadline."

Prior to applying for statewide status, Archbishop Paul Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City wrote a letter to the virtual charter board in the fall of 2021, requesting permission for state funding for a new Catholic charter school — Saint Isodore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

The question was referred to O'Connor, and on Dec. 1, 2022, the attorney general released his opinion in response to a request by Rebecca Wilkinson, executive director of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.

O'Connor wrote that he did not believe the United States Supreme Court would agree that "a state should be allowed to discriminate against religiously affiliated private participants who wish to establish and operate charter schools in accordance with their faith alongside other private participants." He took issue with two lines from the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act, which stated that "a charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations" and "a sponsor may not authorize a charter school or program that is affiliated with a nonpublic sectarian school or religious institution."

In overturning the decision, Drummond wrote to Wilkinson that he doubted most Oklahomans "would want their tax dollars to fund a religious school whose tenets are diametrically opposed to their own faith. Unfortunately, the approval of a charter school by one faith will compel the approval of charter schools by all faiths, even those most Oklahomans would consider reprehensible and unworthy of public funding."

Why apply?

Schuler said the Archdiocese's primary purpose for applying to the board came after looking for ways to serve those families that desire a Catholic education for their children.

"It all comes from a desire to be able to serve our Catholic communities in the rural areas and not necessarily being able to build a brick-and-mortar school in every small town in Oklahoma," Schuler said. "(We want) to be able to serve those kids who wish to have a Catholic education."

She said this is where the virtual model would be a good fit.

"Maybe not every family, but for some of those families," Schuler said.

One key problem, she said, is that to operate a virtual school on a tuition-based system is difficult when all other virtual schools are free because they're considered public schools and receive public funding.

"There's that difficulty ... just being competitive," Schuler said. "That's really the impetus of applying for this."

Another reason the Archdiocese moved ahead with their application was the recent United States Supreme Court rulings like Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Macon v. Carson.

Taking it to court

In 2015, the Montana Legislature enacted a program that provided tax breaks to Montanans if they contributed to charitable organizations that provided scholarships to children, whether the private schools were religious or not.

Three parents wanted their children to attend a Christian school in Kalispell, Montana, but the Montana Department of Revenue saw the legislation as forbidding the participation of religious schools.

The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit organization, filed on behalf of the parents, arguing that the Department's interpretation was an unconstitutional violation of the Free Exercise, Equal Protection and Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Eventually, IFJ appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the parents on their Free Exercise claim.

In the 2022 Carson v. Makin case, the Court struck down a Maine law that gave parents tuition assistance to enroll their child at a public or private nonreligious school of their choosing because their town does not operate its own public high school.

The Court found the law unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by excluding religious private schools but allowing funds to go to nonreligious private schools.

Schuler said the Archdiocese's application falls into similar circumstances.

"The only reason that we would be excluded is simply because we are a religious school," Schuler said. "It's a school choice component, it's just a Catholic virtual school."

In order to compete with the other virtual schools, Schuler said St. Isodore would have to abide by the same acceptance terms as other charter schools.

"But they would be freely choosing our school, knowing that we teach religion," Schuler said. "No one is forced to choose St. Isodore, so where some are upset about the fact that we would be teaching religion as we do in all of our other schools, it's still the parent's choice of whether they choose to attend."

Schuler said that Oklahoma charter schools are funded by state charter funding and they don't receive any local funding.

"The local funding for the public school district remains intact," Schuler said. "It's not affected. All of the parents who are putting their children in private school also pay taxes, and that funding is really rightfully theirs, as well."

Schuler said she doesn't think people understand the full story behind charter schools, which were born from a need and desire to improve the education system — yet knowing that it's very hard to do that from within an existing system.

"Starting a different type of school allows for innovation, allows (people) to not be held bound by some of the bureaucratic tape that holds down public schools," Schuler said. "They're essentially private schools that are receiving funds because they don't necessarily follow all of the rules and regulations that a public school follows."

One of the questions that's still being decided is to what degree charters schools act as state actors (someone who is acting on behalf of a governmental body).

"You've got people on one side that say, 'They don't act as state actors at all,' they are essentially private because the state government does not control everything that happens in the charter school," Schuler said. "And then you've got others on the other side (that say) they are state actors because they received public funding. So that question of 'What are they?' is yet to be answered."

Schuler said that the state's framework does allow for a religious charter school as an option for families.

"The statutory framework in Oklahoma makes it suitable to do so. The previous Attorney General supported that," Schuler said. "This Attorney General has overturned that, but we disagree with that and believe that the first (opinion) was correct."

She added, "So we're kind of caught in the middle there."

On May 2, Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 404 into law, amending Oklahoma's Religious Freedom Act to state that "it shall be deemed a substantial burden to exclude any person or entity from participation in or receipt of governmental funds, benefits, programs, or exemptions based solely on the religious character or affiliation of the person or entity."

"I'm glad to see the governor sign into law this no-nonsense piece of legislation that simply states that people or entities cannot be discriminated against solely on their religious character or affiliation," said House Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City. "Put gender, race or any other factor in place of the word religion and this would not even be an issue. This simply adds religion to this protection under the law."

Critics speak out

But the possibility of a religious charter school option does concern some lawmakers.

"It's very clear: the Catholic church believes there is a market opportunity for them to provide Catholic instruction," said Sen. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City. "If they believe that to be the case, they should pursue that, but they should not force Oklahoma taxpayers to pay for their marketing opportunity."

Fugate said that if the Catholic church is going to provide Catholic instruction, they are effectively turning "Monday school into Sunday School."

"That is an infringement on the rights of every Oklahoman who does not support that particular religion," Fugate said. "You're taking my tax dollars and using it to subsidize the religious activities of a religion that I may not support. That's not religious freedom, that's religious tyranny."

Fugate is also concerned with the students who might be left behind.

"My heart bleeds for the left behind, the kids that are hard to teach," Fugate said. "That's why we have public education and that's why taxpayers should be funding public education because that's available for all kids — and shame on us for not doing everything we can to make sure that we have the best possible public education in the state of Oklahoma."

Policies and procedures

Schuler said the statewide charter school board does have rules for state funding.

"However, it's our religious exemption that we would be exercising in order to maintain it as a Catholic school," Schuler said. "It's really pretty simple."

Schuler said the Archdiocese does hire non-Catholic school employees, but they are required to represent the Catholic church by adhering to Catholic policies and procedures.

"We accept and educate a great number of non-Catholic students and all students are welcome," Schuler said. "But we are teaching the Catholic faith and we expect that respect and adherence to those beliefs."

Schuler said the Archdiocese has seen support for St. Isodore, although it's a new idea and may take a time to catch on.

"We think we can do a good job ... we've done it successfully for hundreds of years," Schuler said. "The Catholic education system has been around for a very long time ... even longer than (Oklahoma) has been a state."