The school’s lawyers argue that under the free exercise clause, the state cannot block the proposal, while opponents say that the establishment clause forbids Oklahoma from funding the new school.
Drummond, who took office in January 2023, filed his lawsuit in the fall of 2023. He won before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which said the proposal was barred under both the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions. That prompted the charter school board and the school to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The opposition is not limited to Drummond. Another lawsuit came via several individual plaintiffs who oppose state-funded religious schools. They are represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a legal group that advocates for keeping religion out of government.
Lori Walke, a minister at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, is one of those plaintiffs. The congregation leans left, with a sign featuring the LGBTQ pride flag hanging on the entrance lobby wall.
“Here in Oklahoma, we seem to be the training ground for Christian nationalism,” Walke said in an interview in her cozy office a few steps from the church’s simple, white-painted sanctuary. A sign saying “nobody’s free until everybody’s free” hung behind her desk.
“Christian nationalism” is a loose term some have applied to conservative Christians who want to open up government spaces to religious, and specifically Christian, speech and symbolism. Critics like Walke say the aim of Christian nationalists is to impose their religious views on others.
“When I heard that this religious institution was insisting that it be given taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate and coerce and discriminate, my first response was that people of faith had to rise up and be the bulwark that defends our families and our public schools,” Walke said.
Another plaintiff, Erika Wright, sees the fight as being primarily about protecting rural schools in the state. She lives in the town of Noble, about an hour south of Oklahoma City, and currently has two kids in public school.
Speaking in her spacious house outside of town, an antique hunting rifle hanging over the mantelpiece, she explained how she heard about the Catholic school idea early on through her work with the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, a public education advocacy group.
The most worrying thing for her about approving religious public charter schools is “the door that this opens to really depleting and diverting crucial resources from our public schools,” she said.
Wright, who is a Republican, said there are more than a dozen churches in her area that already do a good job of providing religious instruction to young people.
“We have enough Sunday schools around here,” she said.
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