Oklahoma asks state high court to force school board to cancel Catholic charter contract

CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2024 / 16:02 pm

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond this week is petitioning the state Supreme Court to force education officials to comply with an earlier court order, one that directed them to cancel the state’s contract with a Catholic charter school.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court earlier this summer ruled against the establishment of St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School. The publicly funded, Catholic-directed institution would be the first of its kind in the nation.

The court argued that extending public funding to a religious school would be a “slippery slope” that could lead to “the destruction of Oklahomans’ freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention.” It ordered the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to rescind the school’s contract. 

St. Isidore, managed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, is appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The virtual charter school board, meanwhile — which has since been incorporated into the Statewide Charter School Board — has delayed rescinding the contract pending the outcome of the appeal.

On Tuesday Drummond petitioned the Oklahoma Supreme Court asking that the court “compel” the charter board to comply with the June 25 order to rescind the contract and “to make clear that further refusal … will be grounds for the issuance of a contempt citation.” 

For “nearly a month, the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board has ignored this court’s patently clear order requiring rescission of the unlawful contract,” the filing reads.

“Every day the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board refuses to comply with this court’s order is another day that a state-established religious school persists,” it says. “That is repugnant to Oklahoma and federal law and must be immediately remediated.”

Drummond in a Tuesday statement said he would “continue to protect the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans by upholding their constitutional rights.”

The school has requested a stay of the earlier high court order as it awaits the results of its U.S. Supreme Court appeal.

Officials argue that a stay would “preserve the current contract in the event the U.S. Supreme Court reverses [the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision]” without allowing the school to open or receive funding.

St. Isidore is working with attorneys from the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic, part of the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative.

Set to launch in August as an online, tuition-free, Catholic K–12 charter school, St. Isidore had 200 students registered to start in the fall.