In a perfect world, last week’s state Supreme Court ruling that blocked the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school would cement the legal reality that separation of church and state is a bedrock principle in the Oklahoma Constitution.
It is not a perfect world, however, so brace yourself for more legal wrangling specifically over St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School and legislative scheming generally aimed at steering tax dollars away from public classrooms and into sectarian schools.
All while Gov. Kevin Stitt, state Superintendent Ryan Walters and other anti-public ed jackals howl incessantly about how unfair it is that families are being denied “school choice.”
There’s a political science term for their claims: Hogwash.
Private school families already have choice. They can decide whether to send their kids to their local public school at no additional expense. Or to write checks to the private school of their choice. Or to educate their kids themselves at home.
They just shouldn’t expect other taxpayers to fund their children’s sectarian education any more than they would tolerate their neighbors refusing to pay gasoline taxes because they don’t drive on state highways.
No one should be surprised by the state Supreme Court ruling. Separation of church and church is among America’s founding principles [see Jefferson, Thomas] and Oklahoma’s.
Except Oklahoma draws an even more explicit line against spending public dollars for sectarian purposes.
Remember when former Tulsa Rep. Mike Ritze – cheered on by his GOP colleagues and then-Gov. Mary Fallin – ponied up $10,000 in 2012 to install a Ten Commandments monument on state Capitol grounds?
The state Supreme Court nixed that attempted subversion of what the justices described as the constitution’s “plain intent … to ban state government, its officials, and its subdivisions from using public money or property for the benefit of any religious purpose.
“Use of the words ‘no,’ ‘ever,’ and ‘any’ reflects the broad and expansive reach of the ban.”
Not long after, voters made their position clear, too. Asked by lawmakers in 2016 to ease the prohibition, Sooners not only said “no,” they said “hell, no” – nearly 60% rejecting SQ 790’s proposed constitutional amendment.
Of course, neither the Ten Commandments’ removal nor SQ 790’s defeat kept the Stitt/Walters-stacked Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board from approving the creation of the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School last October.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond quickly sued the board, warning, “If the Catholic church were permitted to have a public virtual charter school, a reckoning will follow in which this state will be faced with the unprecedented quandary of processing requests to directly fund all petitioning sectarian groups.”
You would think it would give Christian ideologues pause that public dollars could end up funding Islamic, Hindu, Satanic Temple or other religious teachings. You would be wrong.
And now it’s quite likely St. Isidore supporters will attempt to finagle the case into federal court in hopes of ultimately securing a favorable decision from a U.S. Supreme Court that’s signaled it’s more open minded than its predecessors about tax dollars going to religious endeavors.
Of course, a date with SCOTUS might not be the slam dunk St. Isidore supporters expect. After all, the nation’s highest court also has signaled its devotion to states’ rights.
If abortion is best left to individual states, why, too, wouldn’t the decision to ban public spending for sectarian purposes?
No matter what happens next, Drummond and the seven state Supreme Court justices who helped block the St. Isidore scheme deserve praise from clear-eyed Oklahomans who’ve demonstrated repeatedly they understand the importance of keeping church and state separate.
