St. Isidore’s approval is a win for authentic educational pluralism and faithful practice.
Supporters of educational choice and religious liberty had cause for celebration on June 5, when the Oklahoma Virtual Charter School Board approved the initial application for the nation’s first religious charter school. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, a joint venture of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa dioceses, will serve students statewide with the goal of bringing high-quality Catholic education to those who need it most. As the state’s bishops explained after the vote, the school will “be founded in the Catholic intellectual tradition of excellence” and “provide innovative educational options for underserved populations,” including students in rural areas, Hispanic and Native communities, and those with “special educational needs.”
That sounds promising—unless you oppose educational freedom or maintain antiquated views of the First Amendment. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond declared the board’s decision “unconstitutional.” Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, vowed legal action, characterizing the decision as an affront to Oklahomans’ religious liberty and a “sea change for American democracy.” Harvard law school’s Noah Feldman predicted that the approval will test the “Supreme Court’s willingness to abandon the establishment clause of the Constitution.”
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Nicole Stelle Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation professor of law at University of Notre Dame and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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