CAN OF WORMS

Oklahoma Approves America’s First Religious Charter School

Based on prior rulings, the legality of religious charter schools is murky at best.

Oklahoma voted to approve the nation’s first religious charter school on Monday, a vote that will almost certainly be challenged in court as debate rages over whether taxpayer dollars can constitutionally go towards funding for religious schools. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be an online school that teaches Catholicism directly to its students—the first school in the U.S. to do so while receiving taxpayer funds. A nearly three-hour meeting of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board led to a tight 3-2 vote approving the school. Based on prior rulings, the legality of religious charter schools is murky at best. But the organizers of St. Isidore hope that the school’s approval pressures courts to conclusively make a decision. “We invite the challenge, for the sake of the country and answering that question,” Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, told The New York Times.