I wanted to pass along notice of this op-ed written by Kevin Welner, particularly since the religious charter school in question is also a cyber charter school.  As Kevin notes in the piece, “to put it bluntly, the current U.S. Supreme Court has shown an inclination to make highly political decisions, even if those decisions fly in the face of established facts and precedent.”  I agree with Kevin’s assessment that the Roberts’ court will go down in history as the most corrupt, ideologically motivated, and judicially ignorant court in history – which in this case means that there will be a Catholic cyber charter school in Oklahoma in the near future (and likely othersthroughout the United States within a couple of years).

What Would Religious Charter Schools Mean for Public Education?

The Catholic Church wants to open the nation’s first religious charter school in Oklahoma

By Kevin G. Welner — May 29, 2024

Kevin G. Welner is a professor in the education school and the law school (by courtesy) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also the director of the National Education Policy Center and a senior research fellow at the Learning Policy Institute.

The charter school movement was once the golden child of the U.S. education reform world, celebrated and bolstered by billionaire philanthropists and by politicians of both major parties. But charter schools are in the midst of radical changes and are confronting an increasingly unstable alliance supporting them.

Republicans arguably dealt the first major blow. While President Donald Trump embraced the charter school growth policies of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ great passion was instead for private school vouchers. Other Republicans have shown the same preference, with charters suffering from a bit of GOP neglect.

But the key rupture came in 2020-21, when the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform and President Joe Biden himself angered some charter school advocates by calling for increased accountability, transparency, and access.

This shift among Democrats was in response to concerns about fraud and mismanagement within the charter sector as well as access inequities tied to charter schools’ control over who enrolls and who stays enrolled, thereby underserving students with disabilities and English-language learners, among others.

Importantly, the shift was not in response to the specter of religious charter schools. But that’s about to change.

And the prospect of religious teaching in charter schools that are purportedly public is only the half of it. The second half involves the prospect of the U.S. Supreme Court holding that these religious charter schools have a right, under the U.S. Constitution’s clause protecting the free exercise of religion, to engage in faith-based discrimination against LGBTQ+ students and others.

How did we get to this point that’s so far from the original goals of charters, such as community connectedness, curricular and instructional innovation, and a caring embrace of at‐risk student populations?

To continue reading, visit https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-what-would-religious-charter-schools-mean-for-public-education/2024/05