Education: Can public schools be religious?

A supporter holds a 'free to learn' sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court

If St. Isidore prevails, "more difficult controversies await down the road"

(Image credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images)

The Supreme Court appears ready to "bury what remains of church-state separation," said Mark Joseph Stern in Slate. During oral arguments, the court's conservative majority signaled sympathy toward a bid by two Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma to create the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school. Oklahoma's Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, sued to block the opening of St. Isidore of Seville, arguing a religious public school would violate state law and the First Amendment's prohibition of government establishment of religion. But to the conservative justices, those arguments amount to little more than "anti-religious bigotry." Justice Brett Kavanaugh complained that Oklahoma's charter program was "open to all comers"—including schools focused on science and Chinese language—"except religion." If, as seems likely, the court compels Oklahoma to fund St. Isidore, it will "transform U.S. public education." Restrictions on religious charter schools in 46 states will be struck down, and every American will be forced "to subsidize the indoctrination of children into faiths they may not share."

Drummond's religion-establishment argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. The attorney general has warned that if St. Isidore is approved, Oklahoma taxpayers could be forced to fund religious charter schools that most "would consider reprehensible," including ones run by Islamist extremists. But if Oklahoma approves religious charters from multiple faiths, "how is that an 'establishment of religion'?" Precedent is on St. Isidore's side, said Michael Toth and Gavin Schiffres in National Review. The court ruled in 2022 that Maine's exclusion of sectarian schools from a state tuition program violated the First Amendment's ban on religious discrimination. "Withholding a public benefit from students solely because they attend a religiously affiliated charter school is no less discriminatory."

If St. Isidore prevails, "more difficult controversies await down the road," said Stephen L. Carter in Bloomberg. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wondered during arguments what will happen if a state-funded religious charter school boycotts part of a state-approved curriculum, such as the teaching of evolution. Will courts allow that under the free exercise clause? And what if a school like St. Isidore decides to block the admission of students from other faiths or those with gay parents? However the court decides in this case, it's clear "the issue of religion and education is far from resolved."