Atheist group linked to Ronald Reagan’s son sues to block Oklahoma Catholic charter school
Jeremiah Poff
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A coalition of public school advocates and prominent national atheist groups sued Oklahoma on Monday, seeking to block the creation of a public charter school affiliated with the Catholic Church.
In a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma state court Monday, a group of Oklahoma public school advocates led by the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee and represented by attorneys from several atheist groups, including the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, accused the state of violating the law when it approved the creation of St. Isidore Charter School, the first public charter school to be run by a religious entity.
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“The defining feature of America’s public schools is that they must welcome and serve all students, regardless of a student’s background, beliefs, or abilities,” the lawsuit states. “Oklahoma embraces this core principle in its constitution and through a comprehensive system of statutes and regulations. Schools that do not adhere to this principle have long existed and are entitled to operate, but they cannot be part of the public education system.”
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that would block St. Isidore Charter School from operating as a state-approved public school. The suit argues that the charter school’s approval did not comply with existing state board of education regulations and state law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of “religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other protected characteristics.
“In violation of the Oklahoma Constitution and the Charter Schools Act, St. Isidore will provide a religious education and indoctrinate its students in Catholic religious beliefs,” the lawsuit continues. “Indeed, St. Isidore’s application states that the school will be a ‘place[ ] of evangelization’ that ‘participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church.'”
“It’s unconscionable for the state of Oklahoma to approve funding for an overtly sectarian religious school, whose purposes are to promote Catholicism, not public education,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, the president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said in a statement. “This attack on our secular public education system cannot go unchallenged.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is best known for tapping Ron Reagan, the son of the late President Ronald Reagan, to star in fundraising commercials touting atheism.
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Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said that allowing a religious charter school like St. Isidore “would be a sea change for American democracy.
“It’s hard to think of a clearer violation of the religious freedom of Oklahoma taxpayers and public-school families than the state establishing a public school that is run as a religious school,” Laser said. “We’re witnessing a full-on assault on church-state separation and public education — and religious public charter schools are the next frontier. America needs a national recommitment to church-state separation.”
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Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, blasted the lawsuit in a statement, calling it “religious persecution” and said that he was fighting for religious freedom.
“It is time to end atheism as the state-sponsored religion,” Walters said. “Suing and targeting the Catholic Virtual Charter School is religious persecution because of one’s faith, which is the very reason that religious freedom is constitutionally protected. A warped perversion of history has created a modern-day concept that all religious freedom is driven from the classrooms. I will always side for an individual’s right to choose religious freedom in education.”