Charter schools have increased in popularity and availability over the past ten years, but debate over a religious charter school has caused some controversy within the movement.
Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City drafted a proposal to the state's virtual charter school board to start a Catholic, virtual charter school. The board sent the proposal back for revisions, which the archdiocese has until May 25th to complete. The idea for the school came from parents in rural areas seeking a Catholic education for their students. Many live too far from a brick-and-mortar school and the archdiocese saw the options were limited.
"What we've learned out of the pandemic is that you've got a lot of really dire needs, particularly in the rural areas of our state and across the country, in terms of education options," said Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma. "And so we recognize that if we're going to meet those needs, then leveraging technology is probably going to be the best way to do that."
A recent Supreme Court ruling may open up the door for a religious charter school. The court upheld Carson v. Makin, a case in Maine regarding state-funded tuition assistance to non-religious private schools. The program was meant to help families in sparsely populated areas provide accessible education for their child. The court said that to exclude religious private schools from this program was discrimination.
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Oklahoma's proposed virtual Catholic charter – St. Isidore of Seville – would have about 500 students according to Farley. The cost to taxpayers was not immediately available.
Charter school advocates, however, say that it's the message they're the most concerned about. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools said a Catholic charter school goes against some of the main principles of a charter school, namely that it's a public school.
"All charter schools are public schools," said Nina Rees, the group's president. "And in that sense, they cannot teach religion. They have to abide by the First Amendment or the establishment clause of the First Amendment."
Rees said that in addition to legal questions there's also the question of whom the school would admit or hire.
"The biggest issue is that we are public in every sense of the word, and that means being open to anyone who wants to come to our schools, regardless of their background, their religion, their sexual orientation," she said.
The archdiocese pushed back saying they would not discriminate on admittance, but they would follow Catholic doctrine.
"If we are permitted to start a charter school, we would still have to abide by state regulations, which we fully intend to do," said Farley. "We don't exclude students."
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Charter school groups are skeptical.
"By creating a school that would potentially exclude some students, you know, you would be opening the door to a precedent that is fundamentally different from what we were set out to do," said Rees.
Rees' group was on Capitol Hill Wednesday for National Charter School Week to recognize teachers and charter school founders. The event featured several speakers and emphasized the need for more funding and support.
"Charter schools were the vehicle for social entrepreneurship," said David Singer, founder of University Prep in Denver. "If charters didn't exist, there would not be a pathway to found a school alongside families and communities right where I taught high school."
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Another educator at SLAM! Miami said that more funding would allow a variety of students to benefit from a charter school education.
"Additional funding can diversify instructions to students," said Ciela Acosta, who teaches 8th grade. "Additional funding will be beneficial to engage parents in the community. It all starts from home."
About 1.6 million students were enrolled in charter schools in 2009. That number increased to 3.4 million students in 2019. The number of charter schools also increased during that time from 5,000 to 7,500.
