An Oklahoma school board voted 5-0 to disprove the Catholic Church‘s application for a virtual publicly funded charter school after warnings it could open the door for the Satanic Temple to request one of its own.
“If you vote yes, you are not a victim. You are a volunteer when Lucien Greaves of the Satanic Temple wants to apply for a religious charter school,” said Sean Cummings, a Catholic who spoke during a public comment period. Cummings lauded his education from a Catholic school but argued approving the request would violate the separation of church and state.
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The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board is seeking further clarification over the Catholic Church’s application to form St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would become the first publicly funded religious charter school in the nation if approved. The vote triggers a 30-day window for a revised application to be resubmitted by the group.
Ahead of the vote, Cummings was one of five public speakers who asked the board to “vote no” on the application for the charter school, which is described as an online school for kindergarten through high school with plans to sustain 1,500 students.
Soon after the meeting commenced, board members were provided with information by legal counsel with the Oklahoma attorney general’s office on the state’s laws and constitutional sections that prohibit public funds for religious sects or institutions.
One member of the board, Nelly Taloe Sanders, stated she had problems with receiving the legal advice just ahead of the planned vote.
“The fact that we are just now being given this at our meeting before we make this vote, it’s really important that we get that regard and respect of our time to be able to make a good decision based on the law,” Sanders said.
The board voted to seek additional clarification with the Catholic charter organization on “concerns,” including its plan for special education, issues around the pedagogical approach of the school, and a plan to address funding commingling with public and private funds.
Application for the school was supported by Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters, a Republican and nonvoting member of the board present who said he would “stand by” any member who voted to approve the application despite dissent from members of the public at the meeting.
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Much of the discussion Tuesday focused on concerns the board is not covered under “qualified immunity” surrounding a decision to approve the application in the event of potential legal challenges to their decision.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, has been skeptical of the legality behind approving the Catholic group’s application, writing in a recent letter that he doubts “most Oklahomans would want their tax dollars to fund a religious school whose tenets are diametrically opposed to their own faith.”
