Trump administration sides with Catholic school seeking total taxpayer funding
Supreme Court case has potential to drastically transform public education
In a Supreme Court case that could have the most far-reaching effects on public education since 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education outlawed racial discrimination in public schools, the Donald Trump administration has taken the side of a virtual Catholic school that hopes to be fully funded by the state of Oklahoma.
If the nation’s top court agrees with the school in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, the decision could lead to the opening of state-funded church-run schools in the 46 states that have enacted charter-school legislation.
The proposed St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School would be operated by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa as a nonprofit corporation funded in the same way that the state’s other charter schools, all of them fully secular, are. But unlike those other schools, St. Isidore would offer the opposite of a secular education: It would be fully Catholic, including a religion-based curriculum and school-organized devotional activities.
Decision could radically shift church-state balance
It may be impossible to overstate how such a school would be unprecedented for a country where the extent of church-state separation has been the subject of continuous debate ever since the adoption of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. As recently as 2017 — less than a decade ago — the most strongly contested church-state case was Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, in which the court ruled that a state couldn’t reject a grant application submitted by a Lutheran school to help pay for a playground simply because the playground would be on the grounds of a parochial school.
At the time, the idea of a state deciding to fully fund a church school was inconceivable. But Supreme Court decisions in recent years as well as the rise of Christian nationalism have paved the way for something like the Oklahoma plan to receive serious consideration. Most notably, the 2022 Carson v. Makin Supreme Court ruling determined that Maine, once it began offering vouchers to help parents pay for education at private schools, couldn’t refuse to provide the vouchers to parochial schools simply because they were operated by religious entities. Basically, the court decided on a 6-3 vote that once a state decides to provide funding to parents to help them pay for a private education, denying those funds for a religious education amounts to religious discrimination in violation of the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment.
In 2023, the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School board accepted the dioceses’ proposal for the St. Isidore school over the objects of Gentner Drummond, the state’s attorney general, who said that it would violate both the state and federal constitutions. Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed with Drummond, issuing a 7-1 decision that the school violated the state constitution and 6-2 ruling that it violated the federal constitution. The school and the state school board appealed that ruling directly to the Supreme Court.
Federal lawyers make their case
The Trump administration has sided with the school in the form of an amicus curiae or friend-of-the-court brief submitted by Sarah Harris, the acting solicitor general counsel of record, and other attorneys from the Justice Department.
The brief makes two main arguments:
🟪 Excluding church-run schools from a state charter school program violates the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment. The brief argues that such an exclusion would be “penalizing religion by denying an entity access to a public-funding program based on the entity’s religious character.” It supports that interpretation by relying on the Trinity Lutheran and Carson cases as well as well as the 2020 Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue decision, which ruled that a state couldn’t refuse to offer state-funded scholarships to students because they were attending religious schools.
🟪 Even though St. Isidore would be funded by the state, it should not be considered a government entity, which would preclude it from teaching religion. Instead, St. Isidore should be considered to be solely a private contractor, one managed by its own board rather than by the state government.
The brief points out that states aren’t required to allow for the creation of charter schools: “But when States choose to do so, they cannot say religious entities need not apply.”
Other ‘friends of the court’ also submit briefs
Another 22 amicus curiae briefs supporting the school have also been filed as of early this week, all of them supporting the school’s position. Among those supporting the school are 12 red states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
They are joined by several public officials, as well as various religious organizations and groups that have been part of the “school choice” movement.
So far, entities and persons opposing the school have not filed friend-of-the-court briefs, although they undoubtedly will do so. Among the groups known to oppose state funding for the school are the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. If past practice in other church-state cases is an indication, various churches and religious groups can be expected to submit briefs of opposition as well.
Oral arguments have been scheduled for April 30. A ruling is likely to be issued on one of the final days of the term in June.