In Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, state Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) is trying to stop the board's contract with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School simply because it is a religious institution.
Noting that the court has repeatedly held that religions groups cannot be excluded from generally available programs, Philip Sechler of Alliance Defending Freedom's (ADF) Center for Free Speech says this is an important case for the issue of religious discrimination and religious liberty.
"Essentially what Oklahoma has done, it has discriminated against religious applicants for charter schools in a way that the Constitution doesn't allow," he summarizes.
On the heels of National School Choice Week, he says the case is also important in the area of school choice.
He points out that the whole idea of charter schools is to foster innovation and to encourage diversity, and it is wrong for the state to say that religion is the wrong kind of diversity.
"That's not how the First Amendment works," Sechler reiterates.
"If charter school programs are allowed to include religious applicants, then that's just going to offer a greater variety of quality schools to children and to families to choose from," he submits.
Half of the incoming students for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the school at issue in this case, were coming from underprivileged communities.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments this spring.
