A religious school that is also a public school
Religious conservatives often lament losing out to recent social trends, and they’re not entirely wrong. Same-sex marriage has become legal across the country. Church attendance is declining. About 30 percent of Americans report having no religion.
But there are also several ways in which organized religion has won a political victory. Abortion is the most obvious example, and yesterday brought another example in a different field: education.
Oklahoma state officials approved the request of the local Roman Catholic archdiocese to operate a public charter school. Experts say it will be the first explicitly religious public school in the US in modern times. Supporters of the school hope to use it as a test case to go to the Supreme Court and get a clear right for charter schools to offer religious education.
Charter schools are public schools, funded by tax dollars, but given the freedom to operate more flexibly than traditional schools. Nationally, 8 percent of public schools are charter schools. Proponents of religious charter schools believe that church groups should have the same right to operate schools as other organizations.
Opponents argue that religious charter schools erase the separation of church and state by using government funds to support religious education. Opponents say the growth of church-affiliated charter schools could starve funding for traditional schools over time and lead to more segregation of children along religious lines. Rachel Laser, the head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized the decision in Oklahoma as “a major change for American democracy” and vowed to take legal action against it.
The Oklahoma board overseeing charter schools voted 3-2 to approve the new school, which will be named St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. It will target students in rural areas. You can read more about the decision in this story by my colleague Sarah Mervosh.
And at court
Whatever happens with the Oklahoma case, the Republican majority on the Supreme Court has already increased the reach and influence of religious groups. “The Supreme Court has made an extraordinary series of rulings in recent years to expand the role of religion in public life, sometimes at the expense of other values, such as gay rights and access to contraception,” said Adam Liptak, who defended the court for The Times. , it told me.
Between the 1950s and the mid-1980s, the court sided with religious interests about half the time, an academic study found. Since John Roberts became chief justice in 2005, the share has risen to more than 80 percent. By some standards, Roberts and the five other current conservative justices appear to be the six most pro-religious judges in the court’s history.
The types of cases the court deals with have also changed, Adam notes. When Earl Warren was Chief Justice in the 1950s and 1960s, any rulings in favor of religion benefited minority groups or dissenters. In Roberts’ court, the winners are mostly mainstream Christians.
In cases of recent years, the court has ruled as follows:
Next one
In the coming weeks, as the court’s current term comes to an end, the judges are expected to hear two more religious cases.
It is being considered whether a website designer can refuse to work with same-sex couples because her freedom of expression would be violated if she were forced to celebrate same-sex marriages. The judges’ comments during oral arguments suggested yes probably siding with the designer, a decision that would prioritize religious rights and freedom of expression over LGBTQ equality. It would also suggest that LGBTQ rights were more vulnerable than some other forms of civil rights.
In the second case, the Supreme Court appears similarly poised to rule on religion, though the oral hearing suggested the ruling could be limited. In that case, a postman has asked for it the right not to work on Sundays – his sabbath – without losing his job.
For more: Adam Liptak explained the academic research on the court’s new pro-religious stance in this column.
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