US Supreme Court to Consider Constitutionality of Publicly Funded Religious School

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In a move that may significantly broaden religious rights in America, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from an Oklahoma Catholic school that seeks to become the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, the Hill reports.

Accepting the case on Friday, the Justices will consider whether Oklahoma’s Supreme Court was right to block St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from opening as a public religious charter school.

In 2023, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City requested Oklahoma state funding for a virtual charter school shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private schools could receive public funds from school voucher programs and government grants.

While Oklahoma’s charter school board accepted St. Isidore’s application, Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, filed suit in the state’s Supreme Court, arguing that allowing Oklahoma’s taxpayers to have a religious charter choice would violate the Oklahoma Constitution. “We’ve taken a step down a slippery slope that will result someday in state-funded Satanic schools, state-funded Sharia schools. This is not what Oklahomans nor our Constitution, nor the US Constitution permit,” Drummond said in a statement to KFOR-TV.

Agreeing with Drummond that the school is unconstitutional, the Oklahoma high court wrote: “Because it is a governmental entity and a state actor, St. Isidore cannot ignore the mandates of the Establishment Clause, yet a central component of St. Isidore’s educational philosophy is to establish and operate the school as a Catholic school.”

The case is expected to be heard by the US Supreme Court this term, with a decision anticipated in the summer, the Hill reports.

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