The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed divided on allowing Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation's first religious charter school, but if the justices follow the precedents, "they will rule in the favor of the Catholic school," Michael Toth, a resident fellow at the Foundation for Research and Equal Opportunity, told Newsmax.
"There's been three cases during the current Roberts courts, where the Supreme Court has basically addressed the same question. And here's the question: If you're a religious organization, do you get the same rights as nonreligious organizations when we're talking about doing business with the government, providing essential social services?" Toth said on Wednesday's "Finnerty."
"All across the country we've got religious faith-based foster care programs, we've got faith-based hospitals, we've got faith-based organizations that are doing a lot of work to provide for the most disadvantaged communities. Question here is, Can they do the same thing in education?" he said.
"And if the Supreme Court follows its precedents, there's three major cases, 2017 to 2022, then St. Isidore [of Seville Catholic Virtual School] is going to win.
"What else has happened since then? We've seen what's going on in the traditional public school system. It's failing. We all know there's great teachers, there's great schools. But 70% of American eighth graders are not proficient [in reading and math]. We need more options."
St. Isidore, planned as a joint effort by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, would offer virtual learning from kindergarten through high school. Its plan to integrate religion into its curriculum would make it the first religious charter school in the United States.
The proposed school has never been operational amid legal challenges to its establishment.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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