WASHINGTON – On Thursday, the Supreme Court, divided into the court, upheld the minimum decision that nullified the contract approved by the Oklahoma School Council for the Charter at the state level, which established the first school of religious rental in the country, which led to the blocking of the effort in a close monitoring issue that was presented to the separation of the church and the state.
The Supreme Court was divided 4-4, which is left at the location of the Supreme Court’s decision in Oklahoma. Judge Amy Kony Barrett did not participate in the case. The Supreme Court issued a single line, a non -signed decision stating that the ruling was confirmed by a court divided equally.
He argued at the end of April, the legal battle could have opened the door to public dollars that flow directly to religious schools. But follow the arguments, It seems that the result of the case It will depend on the senior judges John Roberts, who focused on the level of state participation in its charter school program. It is possible that the issue of religious institutions should be allowed to participate in government rented school systems before the Supreme Court again in a case that is likely to include all nine judges.
The legal battle came about an attempt to establish Saint Issidor from the virtual Catholic School of Seville in Oklahoma in the aftermath of a triple of the last rulings in which the Supreme Court sided with religious families and institutions that challenge the programs funded by the state to exclude them as violating the condition of free exercises for the first amendment.
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that Missouri violated the free exercise, the right of the Church Church Church Church, when he denied granting it funding to restart its stadium. After that, in 2020, the Supreme Court said that Montana could not exclude religious schools from a program that provides tax credits to people who donate scholarships for private school students. Recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court said Who can not limit The program of assistance to the non -shared schools.
A decision in favor of the school, Saint Issidor of the Virtual Catholic Catholic School, could have led to the first religious school in the country. The public prosecutor at Oklahoma Gintner Dramund, a Republican who argued against the establishment of the school, warned that a decision allows her to stand up will lead to increased laws in at least 45 states and Colombia province, as well as the Federal Charter School program, all of which require that rented schools be other than schools.
Oklahoma has offered the rented schools in the public education system since 1999, and represented at least 44 other states and the Federal Charter School program, which require institutions to be “not available in their programs, admission policies, employment practices and all other operations.” The country includes at least 30 rented schools serving more than 50,000 students, receiving $ 314 million from the state and 69 million dollars in federal funds in the academic year 2022 to 2023, according to 2023 reports From the Ministry of Education in Oklahoma.
In January 2023, the Oaklahoma City diocese and the diocese of Tolsa Saint Issidor formed from Seville School at the School Charter School for the purpose of establishing and operating Saint Issidor as a Catholic School, according to court records. Saint Esidor has submitted a request to the Oklahoma School Council for the state level for its establishment as a virtual rented school “fully adopts the teachings of the Catholic Church” and “these schools include completely [teachings] In every aspect of the school. “
The school estimated the initial enrollment of 500 students and expects that it will receive approximately $ 2.7 million from government funding for the first year of its operation, According to court documents.
Before the council vote, Dramond to caution Against approval of St. Esidor’s request, he said Precedent From his predecessor, who supports the school, can be used “as a basis for religious schools funded by taxpayers, which is exactly what [St. Isidore] He seeks to become. “
However, the Board of Directors of the Charter School voted 3-2 to approve the request of Saint Issidor, and in October 2023, the school and the school entered the establishment of St. Issidor as a rented school.
In that month, Drummond filed a lawsuit against the Board of Directors directly at the Supreme Court in Oklahoma and asked him to cancel the charter contract and announce the St. Issidor Foundation as an illegal rented school.
The prosecutor prevailed in front of the highest court in the state, which ruled that since Saint Issidor is a general rented school, the state condition has violated that these entities be non -religious, as well as the establishment clause in the first amendment, partly because “it will allow” the state spending in direct support to religious curricula and activities in Saint -Izdor. “
The Oklahoma School Council has appealed the Charter and the Esidor Senate in the Supreme Court ruling, and said in January that he would review this decision.
