A bid to launch Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School as a taxpayer-funded religious charter school in Oklahoma was rejected by the state Feb. 9.
In turning down the application, some members of the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board said they were constrained by a 2024 state Supreme Court decision barring the use of public funds to open a Catholic virtual school, reported KGOU, a public radio station in Norman.
An evenly split U.S. Supreme Court left the lower court ruling in place the following year.
“I am troubled by the fact that our hands are tied by the state Supreme Court decision,” board member Damon Gardenhire said about the rejection of Ben Gamla. “We are gonna be sued,” board member David Rutkauskus said.
Brian Shellem
Board Chair Brian Shellem expressed the same sentiment but added: “We are bound by the Oklahoma State Supreme Court, even if we disagree with that ruling.”
But a coalition of civil rights organizations applauded the rejection of what would have been the nation’s first religious public charter school.
“As the Oklahoma Supreme Court recently reaffirmed, charter schools are public schools that must be secular and open to all students,” according to a statement by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, American Civil Liberties Union, Education Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
These groups were among those that sued to block St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in 2023. Earlier this month, they sent a letter to the charter school board urging they reject Ben Gamla’s intent to use tax dollars to create a Jewish curriculum and culture “infused with Jewish faith and traditions.”
“At bottom, Ben Gamla seeks to run a public charter school as a religious school, contrary to state and federal law, while also ignoring antidiscrimination and other rules that all Oklahoma charter schools must follow.
“As the Oklahoma Supreme Court recently made clear, Oklahoma charter schools are prohibited from promoting religion to students or coercing students to take part in religious activity, including by ‘incorporating (religious) teachings into … curriculum and co-curricular activities.’”
Joe Roberts
Some Oklahoma Jewish leaders also opposed the plan to open the faith-based charter school, The Oklahoman reported before the board action.
“Roughly 85% of Oklahoma’s Jewish institutions have gone on record expressing serious concerns around this action. But, let’s be crystal clear: an out-of-state organization should not be allowed to define what Oklahoma’s Jewish community needs without actual engagement with our community,” said Joe Roberts, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Tulsa.
Peter Deutsch
The school is being promoted by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, founder of the Ben Gamla network of charter schools in Florida, Oklahoma Voice reported.
“This is something that’s been in my head for at least 10 years, if not longer, and I think the opportunity is probably the best in Oklahoma of any state in the United States of America today,” said Deutsch during his presentation to the state board.
Brett Farley, a Ben Gamla Charter School board member, said he hopes this matter makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Brett Farley
“We’re going to continue fighting, and we’ll see whether the Supreme Court is going to take this case up. And if they do, hopefully it doesn’t end in a tie vote,” he told KOCO News 5 in Oklahoma City.
In a separate case, legal action already is under way in Knoxville, Tenn., where a group of parents and faith leaders have been granted status as intervenor-defendants in a lawsuit by a religious school seeking public funding.
The U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee “determined that these taxpayers, all parents of current or former Knox County public school students, had a legal right to participate in the lawsuit, which centers on the constitutionality of a religious public charter school attempting to open in Knox County,” Americans United said.
The lawsuit in question was filed by Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville against the Knox County Board of Education. Wilberforce is a private Christian charter school which has yet to open. The lawsuit claims the proposed school is the victim of religious discrimination because the board is adhering to state law banning public funds for sectarian organizations.
“Wilberforce Academy aims to unite high-quality academics with a strong biblical foundation,” the lawsuit explains. “In particular, it seeks to restore the proven principles that shaped America’s earliest and most successful schools: teacher-led direct instruction; a culture of disciplined learning; and high expectations for every student.
The citizens who joined as interveners are represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Education Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Tennessee, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Southern Poverty Law Center and the law firm Morrison Foerster pro bono.
“There is no question that Knox County taxpayers, including our clients, have a substantial interest in preventing their tax dollars from illegally funding a religious public school,” the group said. “Likewise, public school parents have a clear interest in preventing already-scarce funding from being diverted away from their children’s schools to pay for religious instruction.”