Guest: Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board faces historic decision
The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board is set to vote on a first-ever, publicly funded, religious charter school. This vote is expected to take place between mid-May and late June. Should the application be approved, Oklahoma would become the first state in the nation to approve and fund with public dollars a religious charter school. This decision has national implications that challenge the constitutional separation of church and state.
The Oklahoma City and Tulsa Catholic dioceses are asking the board to sponsor a charter school that will be religious in all respects. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School’s application states that it will be “Catholic in teaching, Catholic in employment and Catholic in every way.” The approval of this school would result in any faith being able to establish a virtual or brick-and-mortar charter school anywhere in Oklahoma.
According to Oklahoma law, charter schools are subject to state regulations and are by law “public schools.” Public schools are constitutionally required to be nonsectarian and open to all students regardless of faith affiliation, social status, economic capability, ethnicity or disability. Using public funds to allow any religious group to run a public school with the mission to proselytize their religious faith is contrary to the Oklahoma Constitution, which bars the use of public funds to support any religion. This also violates the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act, which prohibits religious charter schools.
Our own Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond told the Virtual School Board in a Feb. 23 letter that approving St. Isidore or any other religious charter school would violate the Oklahoma Constitution and state law.
“I doubt most Oklahomans would want their tax dollars to fund a religious school whose tenets are diametrically opposed to their 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,” Drummond stated in his letter.
I agree with Attorney General Drummond that no person should be forced by the government to finance faiths that are not their own. Oklahomans should be able to worship and support their own faiths. However, should the board approve this school, the decision will directly violate the religious liberty of Oklahoma’s taxpayers. At its core, this proposal is un-American and is an insult to the very tenets of religious freedom our country was founded on.
Equally important, using public funds to support religious charter schools diverts crucial funds from our public schools. Oklahoma’s public school funding has ranked among the lowest in the nation for too long. If we can’t afford our constitutionally mandated schools, we certainly can’t afford to divert funds to religious charter schools. Oklahomans are not clamoring for this. We want more support for our existing public schools. Religious charter schools of any type ― virtual or brick-and-mortar ― are not in the best interests of the 700,000+ children who attend Oklahoma’s public schools.
I urge you to contact each of the Virtual Charter School Board members and the executive director of the Virtual Charter Board to share your thoughts on the historic decision before them:
Dr. Robert Franklin: robert.franklin@ok.gov
William Pearson: william.pearson@ok.gov
Nellie Sanders: nellie.sanders@ok.gov
Barry Beauchamp: Barry.Beauchamp@ok.gov
Dr. Scott Strawn: scott.strawn@ok.gov
Executive Director Dr. Rebecca Wilkinson: rebecca.wilkinson@svcsb.ok.gov
Erika Wright, of Noble, founded the grassroots organization Oklahoma Rural Schools and serves as president of the Noble Public Schools Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma can't afford to divert funds to Catholic charter schools
