Nuria Martinez-Keel

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

The first step toward a landmark decision on taxpayer-funded religious schools advanced Tuesday, as the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City asked state officials for permission to open an online Catholic charter school. Should the request be granted, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the first religious charter school to exist in the country, archdiocese officials said. It would be a free, state-funded public school educating students online.

With offices based at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Oklahoma City, St. Isidore of Seville aims to open for the 2024-25 academic year and serve an estimated 400 to 500 students K-12 across the state in its first year of operation.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, which oversees the state’s six virtual charter schools, must decide no later than April 29 whether to approve the school’s creation. Three sitting members of the five-seat board heard a presentation of the proposed school on Tuesday. Whatever decision the board makes – to accept or deny – likely will prompt years of litigation, said Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, which represents both the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. “No matter what happens here, our intention is to see this through,” Farley said. “We’re prepared for that long road. This is a major priority to us.”

Students of any or no belief system could enroll in the school, but St. Isidore of Seville would provide a religious education based in Catholic doctrine, according to the archdiocese’s application. The school could hire non-Catholic employees, but all staff members would be required to conduct themselves “in a manner consistent with the discipline and teachings of the Catholic Church.”

Although the school would adopt an anti-discrimination policy, it would fully embrace Catholic teachings on sanctity of marriage, sexual orientation and gender identity, raising questions of whether its policies would correspond with federal protections for LGBTQ+ students and employees. Farley said it’s “too early to even say” whether openly gay or transgender students would be admitted to the school.

Board Chairperson Robert Franklin said he hasn’t decided how he’ll vote but acknowledged there is nationwide intrigue over the decision. “I think the foundational question that I’m asking is if you could (open the school) without the oversight of our bureaucratic board and without taxation ... why wouldn’t you go ahead and begin to do that if that’s the mission?” Franklin said after hearing the presentation. Catholic schools mostly serve Oklahoma’s large metropolitan areas, and the archdiocese would like to expand into rural communities through virtual education, said Lara Schuler, senior director for Catholic education at the Oklahoma City archdiocese. “If we’re competing against all other virtual schools but all of the other ones are free, that’s a problem,”

Schuler said while presenting to the board. “The taxpayer dollars are paying for all of those other ones, but our parents are paying taxes, too.” Former Attorney General John O’Connor issued an opinion in December in support of religious institutions opening publicly funded charter schools, but opponents of the idea say the concept violates the U.S. Constitution and state law. Oklahoma statute prohibits charter schools from being sectarian. O’Connor contended the U.S. Supreme Court likely would find that state law unconstitutional in light of its recent rulings that allowed government funds to support a private school day care playground and tax credits for donations to private school scholarships.

The former attorney general issued his opinion a month before leaving office. His stance is non-binding unless a federal court upholds it. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who defeated O’Connor in last year’s Republican primary, did not return a request for comment on whether he agrees with his predecessor’s opinion. Two national organizations opposed the former attorney general’s opinion and urged the virtual charter school board to reject St. Isidore of Seville. Americans United for Separation of Church and State said O’Connor’s opinion is a “radical departure from well-established law.” The group based in Washington, D.C., argued charter schools, like all public schools, are constitutionally prohibited from teaching religion. “Granting this application and funding a charter school that teaches religion would be a sea change in the law and would upend Oklahoma’s educational landscape,” said Kenneth Upton, an Oklahoma native who is the senior litigation counsel for the group. The Freedom From Religion Foundation contended a Catholic charter school would siphon taxpayer funds away from other Oklahoma public schools, “robbing students of a secular education.”

Local public-school advocate Sherri Brown, of the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee, encouraged the board at its meeting Tuesday not to “sacrifice constitutional rights at the altar of school choice.” The archdiocese estimated start-up and year-one operations would cost $5.2 million, and it pledged to help pursue grant funds to ensure the school has enough money to launch, according to its application.

Named for the patron saint of the internet, St. Isidore of Seville could grow to 1,500 students in five years, school officials said. Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley first expressed intent in November 2021 to apply for a Catholic virtual charter school. The archdiocese already operates 22 schools, according to a letter the archbishop wrote to the board. “Our rich experience with education in Oklahoma positions us well to administer a virtual charter school, and we are eager to continue our longstanding contribution to the public good through this new endeavor,” Coakley wrote.

The application process was put on hold when the statewide virtual charter school board’s executive director, Rebecca Wilkinson, requested an opinion from the attorney general on the matter. Gov. Kevin Stitt said O’Connor’s opinion “rightfully defends parents, education freedom, and religious liberty in Oklahoma.” The school’s creation would be a watershed decision as Stitt and other high-ranking state officials attempt to pivot Oklahoma toward more expansive policies for educational options outside of traditional public schools. The governor urged state lawmakers to spend $130 million to allow more families to home-school or send their children to private schools. House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, said his chamber is unlikely to support the measure.