Dozens of school choice advocates, including speakers from the advocacy group EdChoice, demonstrated outside the nation’s high court amid oral arguments in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond.
The issue is whether the state can contract with two Catholic Church regional bodies to operate a taxpayer-funded online charter school known as St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued the state board for approving the creation of the Catholic charter school. He considered a state-sponsored religious school to be “a serious threat to the religious liberty of all four million Oklahomans.” Last June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 7-1 that it is unlawful to publicly fund a religious charter school.
School choice advocates have argued that parents should have more learning options for their children, not fewer, and they want to see the court rule in favor of St. Isidore.
Critics, including some conservative Christians, contend that private funding shouldn’t support religious schools because Americans should not be required to fund the propagation of religious views they disagree with.
But Yalonda Chandler, a former public-school teacher who launched a faith-based homeschooling support group and microschool in Alabama, Legacy Builders Academy, believes there’s room for both religious and secular schools in the United States.