The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider a notable lawsuit that could allow public funds directly to religious schools.
This lawsuit, which is widely noted in Oklahoma, may change the boundaries between churches and nations in education, and has been judged in a court that is a majority and has widely accepted the role of religion in public life. It will be.
The litigation focuses on the proposal of the first religious charter school in Japan, St. Icidor of Catholic Catholic Virtual School. The school will be online, and the curriculum will have religious teachings in the entire lessons, including mathematics and reading classes.
As a charter school, it will be operated independently of conventional public schools. However, school expenses are covered by national taxes, and students are free.
The question of whether the government can provide enough money to religious schools has been divided into two of the school selection exercises and overall Oklahoma. Governor Kevin Stit and conservative Christian leaders, including Ryan Waltars, a state of the State Education, who are trying to educate the Bible at public schools, has supported the establishment of St. Ishidol.
They believed that conservative courts would make advantageous rulings on the school, urging the Supreme Court to take this lawsuit.
The coalition of religious leaders, advocates of public schools, and some other state Republicans claim that the proposal violates the constitution. Oklahoma, the Republican Secretary of Oklahoma, Gentner Dramond, “Open the water gate, forcing taxpayers to provide funds to all kinds of religion, including Islamic and Devil Churches.”
After the St. Ishidor was approved by the State Committee in June 2023 by a three -to -two voting, the Oklahoma Supreme Court stopped its founding. In a large number of judges, the school wrote that the school could “create a slippery slope,” which leads to “the destruction of freedom of Oklahoma who practices religion without fear of government intervention.”
Nevertheless, some laws specialty, as the Republican state parliament is showing a movement to support other options for educating children at private schools, including religious schools, using public funds or public funds. The house believes that charter school will be another major stage of the debate.
Professor of Yale University Law School, a professor of the Graduate School of Law School, said the Supreme Court's ruling, which allows religious charter schools, is nothing less than the constitution.
“For our constitutional order and the larger American society, the importance of this opinion is not too much emphasized,” said the driver.
This lawsuit will launch a new educational issue for 6: 3 conservatives in the US Supreme Court, which has shown a tolerant of religions in public places. Judge Amy Connie Barrett, a member of the conservatives, did not explain why.
In the 2022 ruling, the court ruled that high school football coaches had the right to pray in the field after the team's match.
In recent litigation, the main and Montana are prohibited from excluding religion schools from state tuition programs and scholarships to private school students. John G. Roberts Junior judge does not need to support religious education in both lawsuits, but has chosen to provide subsidies to private schools must discriminate religious education. I mentioned.
The supporters of St. Ishidor argue that preventing funding to religious charter schools violates the protection of religious religions in Article 1 of the Constitution. Jim Campbell, Chief Law Advisor of the Alliance Defender Freedom, representing the Oklahoma Charter Committee, praised the court to hear the lawsuit.
According to Campbell, “Oklahoma parents and children can live better by increasing the number of educational options,” said Campbell. “It is significant that state officials claiming to support religious freedom discriminate against St. Ishidor due to the Catholic religion.”
The school was initially scheduled to open in August, and the Roman Catholic Church of the Catholic Church and Bishops of Bishop to Talsa were to be managed. The leaders of the school say that they will accept students with all religions.
But the opposition, however, conflicts with the constitution prohibiting the establishment of religion by the government, claiming that religious freedom will be infringed. “Changing public schools to Sunday schools will be a dangerous change for our democracy,” said some organizations, including the United States, for the separation of political and religious and religion, in a joint statement on Friday. 。
According to Professor Preston Green of Connecticut University, Charter School determines how the court should apply different educational issues due to hybrid properties that share both public and private schools for decades. It has become difficult to do. I am studying educational law.
Nevertheless, Green said that St. Ishidor's claim believes that he may be “very attractive” to his conservative judge, and eventually the court stood by the charter school. Is a potentially very large. “
“Charter School is the next frontier,” Green said in the movement to remove the barriers to providing funds to religious education. “And that's not the end here.”