Guest: Tax-funded parochial schools divert tax dollars from underfunded public schools.
The Oklahoman’s Oct. 10 story reports on the latest episode in the decades-long labor of religious institutions nationwide to obtain access to, and funding from, the public square to promote evangelism and weaken secular public education. Emboldened by favorable "religious freedom" decisions from the 6-3 conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board has approved a contract with St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School, owned and operated by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, to establish a religious school funded by state taxpayers.
The ACLU and other groups are challenging the board’s decision as a blatant violation of theConstitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits any government from establishing a religion.
The clause is the narrative embodiment of the “wall between Church and State” established by the Founding Fathers. It has its origins in Virginia’s 1786 Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, in which he warns that “to compel a man to furnish contribution of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
The ACLU lawsuit will probe the tension between the Establishment Clause and the FirstAmendment, which guarantees freedom of religion. But the board’s action raises significantprudential questions as well. At a minimum, tax-funded parochial schools will, of necessity, divert scarce tax dollars from historically underfunded public school systems. In a 2023 rankingof state educational programs, Oklahoma was ranked 48th in the nation in both spending andfunding of public education and could be severely handicapped by the redirecting of state taxdollars to religious schools.
Taxpayer-funded religious schools also undermine important public policies promoting diversity,equality and inclusion. While traditional public charters represent an alternative to the publicschool system, they provide a similar secular curriculum and commit to open enrollment and theprotection of student rights, irrespective of gender or sexual orientation. In its application to theschool board, in contrast, the archdiocese proudly promotes the school as an “evangelical” institution acting as “an instrument of the Church.”
Although the school states that it will admit students of all faiths, it also affirms its commitment to teaching Catholic doctrine and beliefs.
In practice, the church’s ecclesiastical catechism directs that school to comply with only thosestate and federal laws it finds “compatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” Accordingly, hard-won civil liberties applied to public charter schools would not necessarily be adheredto by a Catholic-run charter institution.
Many Oklahomans, I suspect, do not share the teachings of the church and might resent subsidizing moral lessons with which they do not agree.
John Seymour, of Arlington, Virginia, is a retired attorney, most recently an assistant solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and he served as an altar boy in the Catholic Church during his youth.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Guest: Tax-funded Catholic charter school 'instrument of the Church'
