Catholic Charter School Case Based on Religious Liberty, Oklahoma Education Official Says

The Catholic charter school case in Oklahoma that has been taken up by the Supreme Court is, by definition, a religious liberty case because “there is no wall of separation between church and state,” according to Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.

The court heard arguments last week in a bid led by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to establish St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

It would be the U.S.’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school.

Walters told Newsmax that proponents of the school are excited by the “justices President Trump has put on the court” since  “they’re originalists.”

“They look back at the First Amendment, they look back at the Constitution and say, Listen, you have the right to the free exercise of your religious beliefs, the free exercise clause. So, we are punishing a school — our attorney general, our state Supreme Court here — are punishing a school because they’re Catholic? They meet every criteria. Their application was flawless. It was tremendous,” Walters said. “They want to bring better education to our kids, and our court and our attorney general … come out and say no. Because you’re Christian, the answer is no. And as Kavanaugh pointed out, Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh and Justice [Samuel] Alito, this sounds like very anti-religious motivations from our attorney general and the Oklahoma state Supreme Court.”

“So, I think the justices are very much looking at that Constitution. They’re saying, absolutely, we’ve got to end this war against Christianity that we saw for decades. We’ve got to make sure that our rights are protected,” Walters continued.

Walters put to rest the notion that the proposal would move resources from underfunded public schools and force taxpayers to pay for religious schools, saying that “[T]axpayers are paying to educate their children and for these radical leftists to come in and say, but listen, no, we’re not going to let you go to a religious school. No, we’re not going to let you direct where your tax dollars go. It’s absurd. It is because they are out propping up the left-wing teachers unions. They are out propping up left-wing woke administrators. Here’s the reality. You fund education based on every child. We educate every child. If a parent wants to send them to homeschooling, send them to a Christian school, that’s the parents’ prerogative. We should make sure that parents have their rights protected. They should be choosing the school of their choice.”