Oklahoma Attorney General Sues To Stop Nation’s First Public Religious School

Genter Drummond, Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General, launched a lawsuit Friday to stop state board funding for what would be the nation’s first religious public charter school, the Associated Press reported.

Drummond, who warned that the establishment of religious public charter schools would violate both the state and federal constitutions, filed the lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court against the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, according to AP.

Drummond’s challenge comes on the heels of an agreement signed this week by three board members with the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, AP reported.

“Make no mistake, if the Catholic Church were permitted to have a public virtual charter school, a reckoning will follow in which this state will be faced with the unprecedented quandary of processing requests to directly fund all petitioning sectarian groups,” the lawsuit states.

The school board approved the Catholic Archdiocese application in June by a vote of 3-2, CNN reported.