Fresh on the heels of debating a proposed Catholic charter school with state funding, the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board has received a request for a proposed Jewish public charter school.
That is cause for concern at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which successfully led the charge against St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic School that was blocked by the Oklahoma and U.S. supreme courts.
Now, AU has requested records from the Charter School Board as part of an investigation into the proposed Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School. The proposed online school wants to integrate “Jewish religious learning and ethical development” with academics.
Rachel Laser
AU President Rachel Laser says this proposal should be rejected for the same reason the Catholic charter school was rejected: It would be an unconstitutional violation of church-state separation.
“As the Oklahoma Supreme Court recently affirmed in the case of St. Isidore, charter schools are public schools that must be secular and open to all students,” she said. “Despite their loss earlier this year at the U.S. Supreme Court, religious extremists once again are trying to undermine our country’s promise of church-state separation by forcing Oklahoma taxpayers to fund a religious public school. Not on our watch. Just as we did in our lawsuit to block St. Isidore and in the cases we continue to litigate against former Superintendent Ryan Walters’ extremist schemes, Americans United is prepared to do whatever it takes to safeguard public education and religious freedom for all Oklahomans.”
Brett Farley, executive director for the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma — who was a member of St. Isidore’s board of directors — reportedly is listed as a member of the founding team of Ben Gamla’s proposed Oklahoma school.
AU has filed its request for records under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
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