Staff Reports
Oklahoma has just made a groundbreaking decision and approved the first religious charter school in the United States. This online school named Saint Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School will be supported by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, and is open to enrollment by students of all and no faiths.
New York Times Conservative Discovers That Charter Schools Without CRT and Porn Are a Danger to the Country https://t.co/AeCiYdio2X
— Marlon East Of The Pecos (@Darksideleader2) June 9, 2023
Governor Kevin Stitt has labeled this decision as a win for religious liberty and education freedom in Oklahoma. State Superintendent of Education, Ryan Walters, also supported this decision and claimed that it reflects the will of the people of Oklahoma.
However, some people, such as former Democrat and Joe Biden donor Attorney General Gentner Drummond, are against this decision and believe that this will compel the approval of charter schools by all faiths, including those that most Oklahomans would consider unworthy of public funding.
New York Times writer David French has also expressed his opposition by suggesting that the approval of a religious institution like this sets a dangerous precedent and violates the constitutional balance of the First Amendment’s establishment clause and free exercise clause. French believes that the education culture wars should be resolved by authority rather than liberty as the state is essential in determining the values to which children are exposed.
However, this argument is fundamentally dishonest and the claims of authoritarianism and racism as the impetus behind the fight against CRT and porn in school libraries are baseless. Parents should be free to decide how to raise their children and choosing religious education is a liberty. The online Catholic school is aimed to provide a way for Catholic parents to homeschool their children and will not compel students of other faiths to attend.
Oklahoma conservatives are right to advance their values through the exercise of liberty, not by breaching the barrier between church and state. Approving a charter school application does not remotely resemble the establishment of a religion, unlike the amoral and atheistic values reflected in public schools today. The Supreme Court has already ruled that providing education vouchers for students to attend private schools also includes religious schools. Therefore, the Oklahoma Supreme Court should follow the precedent set by Carson and approve the Catholic online charter school.
In short: the approval of the first religious charter school in the US is a win for religious liberty and education freedom in Oklahoma, and should be supported by all conservatives who believe in the choice and liberty of parents to educate their children.
