Oklahoma Attorney General states that religious institutions should be able to operate charter schools

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A current opinion from the Oklahoma State Attorney General said that the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act is unconstitutional.

Oklahoma AG John O’Connor stated he didn’t imagine the U.S. Supreme Court would agree that “a state should be allowed to discriminate against religiously affiliated private participants who wish to establish and operate charter schools in accordance with their faith alongside other private participants.”

The Charter Schools Act has two traces that O’Connor took problem with:

1. “a charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations”
2. “A sponsor may not authorize a charter school or program that is affiliated with a nonpublic sectarian school or religious institution”

This means that the state can not enable for charter schools to be run by personal religious organizations.

O’Connor stated that is unfair, since different personal entities can be granted authority in the event that they meet the best necessities.

He used three U.S. Supreme Court circumstances to make his argument:

• Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v Comer (2017)
• Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020)
• Carson v. Makin (2022)

Oklahoma Education Association argued that these circumstances can not be used to justify tax {dollars} going to religious-based schools.

“The recent decisions of the US Supreme Court are not contextually similar to the suggestion that a publicly funded school district requiring affirmation of particular religious tenets and doctrine as a condition of admission would receive a similar endorsement from a court,” learn, partly, OEA’s assertion.

Charter schools are public schools. They are funded with tax-payer {dollars} to assist present another studying surroundings for college students.

The Department of Education stated charter schools can be licensed if they’re affiliated with a non-public charter administration firm, and it stated there are 5 or fewer of these firms working within the state. Those firms will not be religious-based.

Rebecca Wilkinson, the manager director of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, requested the opinion due to a letter from the Archbishop of Oklahoma City.

In a letter from November of 2021, Archbishop Paul Coakley stated the Archdiocese of OKC “intends to apply for authorization to form and operate a virtual charter school in the state.”

Wilkinson requested the opinion from the AG to decide how her workplace should transfer ahead, contemplating the Charter Schools Act.

If you’re pondering that this problem was determined earlier than, you’re right.

In 2016 Oklahoma voters defeated State Question 790.

SQ790 was meant to get rid of the ban on tax {dollars} getting used for religious functions.

Article II, Section 5 within the Oklahoma Constitution, referred to as the Blaine Amendment, prohibits public cash from being spent for religious functions. SQ790 would have stripped away that modification.

It is unclear how O’Connor’s opinion stands up towards the Blaine Amendment.

OEA highlighted that the opinion is simply a advice and isn’t binding.

“The Oklahoma Attorney General does not have the power to change our constitution, nor does he have the power to change our statutes by predicting an outcome of a future case litigated before a state or federal court,” stated OEA.