A federal district court has, at least for the time being, removed legal obstacles to the opening of the country’s first faith-based charter school, one that would be fully funded by taxpayers.
Judge David L. Russell of the U.S. District Court of Western Oklahoma last week issued an injunction directing the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board to approve a charter for the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation to operate a virtual charter school. Russell was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan; his ruling is subject to appeal to the U.S. 10th District Circuit Court of Appeals.
This isn’t the first time that the Oklahoma board has faced the issue of whether to grant a charter for a religious school. The board in 2023 approved a charter for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Charter School, but the charter was struck down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which ruled, among other things, that the charter violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. The state court’s decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2025 divided 4-4 after Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself, possibly because of connections she had with the school and/or its legal team. The tie vote had the effect of upholding the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision without establishing a precedent.
Ben Gamla is represented by, among others, the Becket law firm, which also was involved with the St. Isidore case and has a goal of opening up public charter schools to religious instruction.
The case is National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation v. Shellem. Brian T. Shellem chairs the charter school board.
The board had rejected Ben Gamla’s charter application because it felt bound by the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision. According to Russell’s written opinion, the school board does not oppose Ben Gamla’s appeal of its charter rejection, suggesting that the board wants to see courts settle the constitutional issue. Russell did say, however, that two groups of taxpayers and/or parents have intervened in the case to fight state funding for the proposed charter school.
Russell based his ruling largely on Carson v. Makin, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined Maine could not deny school voucher funds to a school simply because of its religious nature. That ruling has resulted in many states expanding the amount of public funding available to private religious schools, although no state has yet to fully fund a religious school as a charter school.
Peter Deutschol, founder of the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, praised the decision in a statement provided by the Becket law firm:
This is a victory for educational freedom, religious equality, and families in Oklahoma. The state cannot single out religious schools for exclusion while welcoming everyone else into the charter school program. We’re eager to open wide the doors of educational opportunity in Oklahoma.
Opponents of the school’s public funding responded differently. Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued this statement on behalf of the parents who have intervened in the case:
The court’s conclusion that a public charter school can be religious opens the door to a dangerous sea change for our democracy. Forcing taxpayers to fund religious public schools violates state and federal law. Ben Gamla will not only indoctrinate students into a particular religion — it will discriminate against families that don’t share the school’s beliefs. We will continue to fight for all Oklahomans, who deserve public schools that are secular and open to all students.
An immediate appeal of Russell’s decision is likely.
Original article (March 30, 2026): Another court fight over a taxpayer-funded religious charter school starts in Oklahoma
It was less than a year ago that the U.S. Supreme Court, by the narrowest of margins, brought an end to plans to create a totally government-funded virtual school operated by Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma. Now, advocates of religious schools financed with taxpayer dollars have filed a lawsuit that could ultimately give the nation’s top court a second chance to approve such a school.
But this time, the school would be Jewish rather than Catholic.
The case is National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation v. Drummond, in which the foundation is seeking to overturn the February decision by the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board to reject the creation of a virtual charter school whose curriculum would include Jewish religious instruction. Ben Gamla already operates four in-person charter schools in Florida, although those schools provide only a secular education, albeit one steeped in familiarizing students with the Hebrew language and Israeli culture.
It was that Oklahoma school board that in 2023 had approved the creation of the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School, which could have become the nation’s first government-funded religious school were it not for courts that stepped in the way. The Oklahoma Supreme Court was the first to prevent the school’s creation, saying that it violated both the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions. That decision in turn was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which split 4-4 on overturning the Oklahoma court’s ruling. Because the vote was a tie, it had the effect of upholding the Oklahoma ruling without setting a precedent.
When the board rejected Ben Gamla’s plans for a charter school, the board said it did so because it was bound by the ruling of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The tie vote in the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court was possible because one of the justices, Amy Coney Barrett, who is Catholic, recused herself, presumably because of indirect connections she had with the proposed Catholic school. Supporters of religious charter schools are betting that Barrett will provide the vote needed for the Supreme Court to order the board to accept Ben Gamla’s charter application.
Ben Gamla filed its lawsuit in the Western District of Oklahoma U.S. District Court. It is being represented by the Becket law firm, which had represented the Catholic school and is one of the country’s biggest players in religious-liberty litigation.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Gentner Drummond, the Oklahoma attorney general and members of the charter school board.
According to the lawsuit, Ben Gamla “aims to create a charter school in Oklahoma where students receive a rigorous academic education alongside a deep cultural and ethical grounding derived from the Jewish faith, heritage, and tradition.”
The lawsuit further explained1:
For many Jewish parents, and especially Orthodox Jewish parents, it is an important religious obligation to send their children to Jewish schools, where they will receive an education in secular subjects as well as the Jewish faith. This belief concerning the importance of religious education comes straight for [sic] the Torah, the Talmud, and the Jewish Code of Law, which explain that Jewish parents have a solemn responsibility to transmit the Jewish faith to their children.
Unfortunately, a Jewish education is not widely available in many parts of the United States. Where it is available, it can often be prohibitively expensive and beyond the reach of many Jewish families. Plaintiff Ben Gamla thus seeks to fill a gap by partnering with Jewish parents in upholding their religious beliefs and obligation to provide a Jewish education to their children. Indeed, the transmission of Jewish religious beliefs and practices to children is a core aspect of Ben Gamla’s religious mission.
It is likely that the federal court will schedule its first hearing in the case for later this year. Ben Gamla is likely to base its legal arguments in part on the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Makin v. Carson, which found that states providing education vouchers cannot discriminate against religious schools simply because they are religious.
Since the lawsuit was filed just a few days ago, Drummond’s office has yet to file a formal response.
Although it has not yet publicly commented on the new lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union will almost certainly oppose Ban Gamla’s plans. It was one of the groups that had sued to prevent the formation of the St. Isidore school.
When announcing its opposition to that Catholic school, the ACLU said:
A private religious school is, of course, well within its rights to teach [religious] lessons. And churches are free to inculcate these beliefs in Sunday school. But they are wildly unconstitutional in public schools. Indeed, the mere notion of a religious public school is a constitutional oxymoron. This would be true for any proposed religious charter school — whether imposing Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or any other faith on students.
For ease of reading, formatting used in the legal document has been omitted from the following quotation.