The attorney general of Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit against the nation’s first religious charter school, claiming its establishment violates the state’s religious liberty protections.
State Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, announced the lawsuit in a press release on his website on Oct. 20. He filed the challenge in the Oklahoma State Supreme Court.
The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board had earlier this month approved the contract of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The board in June had approved the school’s application, with this month’s contract approval clearing another hurdle for the school’s projected opening next year.
Charter schools are special publicly funded education institutions; the National Charter School Resource Center defines a “charter school” as a public “school of choice,” one that remains “publicly accountable” while still retaining autonomy in how it is run and managed.
In his press release, Drummond said the contract approval “violated the religious liberty of every Oklahoman” by forcing state residents to fund “the teachings of a specific religious sect with our tax dollars.”
“Today, Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism,” Drummond said. “Because of the legal precedent created by the board’s actions, tomorrow we may be forced to fund radical Muslim teachings like Sharia law.”
Drummond’s lawsuit argues that state laws and regulations “strictly prohibit the sponsorship of a sectarian virtual charter school.”
Drummond in the suit declared himself “duty bound to file [the lawsuit] to protect religious liberty and prevent the type of state-funded religion that Oklahoma’s constitutional framers and the founders of our country sought to prevent.”
The attorney general’s office further argued that the state risks losing more than $1 billion in education dollars from the federal government. Those funds are contingent upon “compliance with applicable laws” regarding religious establishments.
The charter school “clearly violates the Establishment Clause and must be stopped,” the lawsuit states. It asks the court to “correct the board’s unlawful actions.”
Officials with St. Isidore were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
Drummond’s lawsuit follows an earlier suit by several Oklahoma citizens and interest groups to head off the Catholic school’s funding by the state.
The charter board had previously rejected St. Isidore’s application in April before ultimately approving it in June.