‘Aha moment’
The Covid-19 pandemic, which forced schools across the nation to quickly move operations online, was the genesis of the plan to start a Catholic virtual charter school, according to Michael Scaperlanda, a former law professor who is now chancellor of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
There are already brick-and-mortar Catholic schools in Oklahoma, but they are in urban areas in what is a largely rural state.
But the ease with which schools were able to pivot to online education was an “aha moment” for church officials, Scaperlanda said in an interview at the grand, recently constructed shrine in Oklahoma City that honors Stanley Rother, an Oklahoma-born Catholic priest who was killed in Guatemala.
At that point, Oklahoma’s Statewide Charter School Board was already established and had approved both in-person and virtual nonreligious schools. The church saw an opportunity both to set up a virtual school and find a way to fund it.
It was obvious it would spark a legal challenge, but in consultation with Nicole Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who along with other conservatives has long argued in favor of religious charter schools, the archdiocese thought it was worth a shot.
One consideration was the Supreme Court’s full-throated support of religious rights.
“Given the fact that we had this virtual charter opportunity in Oklahoma coupled with the way the court was looking at religious liberty, it looked like an opportune time to apply,” Scaperlanda said.
“We weren’t looking for the fight, but we were prepared for it if it came,” he added.
At the time, the plan for what was named St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School had the backing of Oklahoma’s then attorney general, John O’Connor. At the request of the charter school board, he submitted a legal opinion in December 2022 saying that in his view a religious charter school would be lawful.
An application jointly proposed by the Oklahoma City and Tulsa archdioceses was officially submitted in early 2023, and the school was approved that summer. As a result of the litigation, it has yet to open its virtual doors.
Continue reading
A battle over religion and schools in Oklahoma could decide the future of the First Amendment
Discussion about this post