What About Religious Charter Schools? Charter schools are
gaining in popularity, with approximately 4,000 now open,
enrolling some 1.1 million U.S. children with more participating
every year. Since the charter school movement began in 1991 in
Minnesota, these schools have filled a need in American society,
giving individuals, communities, and local associations a chance
to create their own schools—with tax dollars paying the basic
costs. A major, unresolved question remains, however: What about
opening and funding religious charter schools? How would
localities handle the many complexities of funding charter
schools that have a religious, social, and cultural mission?
History offers some perspective. When the state of Oregon passed
a law in 1922 requiring that all school-aged children attend a
public school in their community, the issue of religious freedom
in education went to court in the case Pierce v. Society of
Sisters. In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that outlawing
attendance at private or religi