FFRF joins group to block religious public school
A group of seven Oklahoma taxpayers — including families with children attending public schools — filed a motion April 1 in federal court seeking to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation.
Groups representing the intervenors in the case include the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Education Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. Many of these organizations represented Oklahomans who challenged the first attempt to establish a religious charter school in their state, which the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared unconstitutional two years ago.
“We’re pleased to be part of this pushback against religious imposition,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The public school system must remain secular — and we’ll do our utmost to ensure that.”
Ben Gamla is trying to open the nation’s first religious public charter school in Oklahoma — a clear violation of state and federal law that defines charter schools as public schools that must be secular and open to all students. Like all public schools, charter schools cannot lawfully indoctrinate religion or discriminate. However, Ben Gamla’s charter school application makes clear that Jewish religious teachings will be integrated into “every dimension of . . . life” at the school, including classroom instruction and other activities.
Additionally, Ben Gamla’s application indicates that the school plans to exclude students and staff who do not share its faith. Ben Gamla’s application states: “Admission assumes the student and family willingness to adhere with respect to the beliefs, expectations, policies, and procedures of the school.” Students and families outside that faith would effectively be excluded on the taxpayer’s dime because the school would promote the beliefs of a specific religion. And Ben Gamla’s application further states that the school may base employment decisions on religion.
The public school families are seeking to join the lawsuit, The National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation Inc. v. Drummond, to oppose Ben Gamla’s effort to force Oklahoma to authorize and fund an unconstitutional religious public charter school. They object to their tax dollars funding a public charter school that will indoctrinate students into a particular religion, in violation of Oklahoma and federal law and our nation’s longstanding commitment to the separation of church and state. They also object to public funds being diverted from their nonreligious and inclusive public schools — which already face serious resource limitations — to a religious school that plans to discriminate based on religion. These taxpayers are asking the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma to allow them to participate in the case in order to safeguard their interests in public education, religious freedom and church-state separation.
“My family is Jewish. We know firsthand that people of all faiths are best served when public schools don’t impose one idea of religion over others,” says Kara Joy McKee, a proposed intervenor and parent of a public school student. “A religious public charter school would undermine religious freedom and drain tax dollars from schools that are welcoming to students of all faiths, families and backgrounds.”
Ben Gamla’s lawsuit was filed less than two weeks after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit in state court arguing that the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board intentionally and improperly manipulated the administrative record of its denial of Ben Gamla’s application in a manner designed to aid Ben Gamla’s litigation position. Concern about statements by a majority of the board’s members expressing disagreement with state law prohibiting religious public charter schools is one reason that the proposed intervenors are seeking to participate in Ben Gamla’s lawsuit.
