Oklahoma’s Supreme Court has declared what would have been the nation’s first religious charter school unconstitutional. Relying upon Oklahoma’s constitution, which contains an anti-Catholic Blaine Amendment, the court found that a charter granted by the state school board to the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, a tuition-free, online, K-12 institution, was prohibited.
Charter schools are the core of Oklahoma’s efforts to inject parental choice into the state educational system. While the government may have taken on the responsibility to provide a “free, public education,” that does not imply the education has to be delivered by government employees. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was a joint project of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. According to its application, admission is not limited to Catholic children, but it does…
