The push to open the country's first religious public school isn't over, proponents say
One of the most awaited Supreme Court rulings of the year ended in a deadlocked decision that led to triumph for supporters of church-state separation in schools.
On Thursday, the court split 4-4 over a bid to let Oklahoma use taxpayer funds to open what would have been the United States’ first religious public charter school — St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the sole woman represented in the court’s conservative supermajority, did not deliberate in the case. She recused herself, reportedly because she is a good friend of a Notre Dame Law School professor who served as an adviser to the charter school. St. Isidore would have created a Catholic-centric curriculum and been run by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. The split ruling, which did not break down how the justices voted, affirms the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision last year prohibiting the charter school because its creation would have violated the state and federal constitutions as well as the state charter school statute.
The central question of the case was whether the First Amendment’s religion clauses allow states to open and fund public charter schools with a religious focus. Had the school been allowed to go forward it could have exposed public school students to discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion, opponents of St. Isidore argued. They contend that blurring the lines between church and state in schools could introduce students to ideas that engender shame in them about their identities since religious doctrine can be — and has been — interpreted in ways deemed racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/push-open-country-first-religious-212638903.html
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