Oklahoma attorney general sues to stop US's first public religious school

[In It to Win It]

Oklahoma attorney general sues to stop US's first public religious school

Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Friday sued to stop a state board from establishing and funding what would be the nation's first religious public charter school after the board ignored Drummond's warning that it would violate both the state and U.S. constitutions.

Drummond filed the lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court against the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board after three of the board's members this week signed a contract for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

“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 voted 3-2 in June to approve the Catholic Archdiocese's application to establish the online public charter school, which would be open to students across the state in kindergarten through grade 12. In its application, the Archdiocese said its vision is that the school “participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.”

The approval of a publicly funded religious school is the latest in a series of actions taken by conservative-led states that include efforts to teach the Bible in public schools, and to ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation and gender identity.

[edisdead]

1. This country has lost its damned mind

Thankful this ag is taking it on.

[BOSSHOG]

2. My Solution to all this religious crap in the land of the free?

Do away with the separation of church and state and turn loose the assessors. If Churchs wanna pray and groom with public money they can add to the kitty. Religious entities love the one sidedness of it all. Ya wanna dabble in the affairs of state. Fine. Let the state dabble in your affairs.

And kudos to the OK Attorney General, the very rare Republican with a knowledge of the law and one who acts common sense. Has he received death threats yet?

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. And tax

the damned churches- every last one of them

[czarjak]

4. Those Okie Evangelcals should just love themselves that Catholicism learnin'.