A Jewish charter school in Oklahoma has initiated legal action against the state, challenging the prohibition on religiously affiliated charter schools. This lawsuit brings to the forefront constitutional questions that the U.S. Supreme Court left unresolved in the case of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond.
The Oklahoma Charter School Act mandates that charter schools must be nonsectarian in all aspects, including programs, admission policies, and employment practices. Specifically, the Act states that “[a] charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations,” and further prohibits sponsors from authorizing charter schools affiliated with religious institutions. This statutory framework effectively bars religious organizations from operating charter schools within the state.
In December 2022, then-Attorney General John M. O’Connor issued a memorandum asserting that such prohibitions violate both the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act and the U.S. Constitution. He argued that not only may a charter school in Oklahoma be religious, but it would be unlawful to prohibit the operation of such a school. This position was supported by Governor Kevin Stitt.
Subsequently, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa applied to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as part of the state’s public charter program. Despite initial rejection, the application was approved in June 2023. However, current Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who took office in January 2023, opposed this decision, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the separation of church and state. He filed a lawsuit to block the school’s establishment, leading to a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in July 2024 that funding the school violated both the Oklahoma Constitution and the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The case escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in May 2025, issued a per curiam opinion affirming the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision by an equally divided court. This outcome upheld the prohibition on public funding for religious charter schools in Oklahoma but did not establish a binding nationwide precedent.
In March 2026, Attorney General Drummond filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board over its rejection of a Jewish charter school, Ben Gamla, on nonsectarian grounds. Drummond alleged that the Board had “improperly engineered a record that omits independent bases for rejection” in a deliberate decision designed to avoid issues of state law when Ben Gamla files a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision in Drummond v. Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.
This series of legal actions underscores the ongoing tension between religious freedom and the constitutional principle of separation of church and state in the context of public education. The outcomes of these cases may have significant implications for the future of religious charter schools in Oklahoma and potentially across the United States.