On Thursday, Dec. 1, the Oklahoma Attorney General released an Attorney General Opinion outlining his thoughts on the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act, specifically in relation to religious institutions. OEA released a statement on Friday, Dec. 2 to the media in response to his claims:
The intent of Oklahoma citizens has been clearly and unequivocally expressed in our state constitution and the statutes enacted by the legislature. Our state constitution states that public schools shall be free from sectarian control and that no public money shall ever be appropriated or used, directly or indirectly, for the benefit or support of any system or religion, religious teacher, or sectarian institution. Similarly, when enacting the Oklahoma Charter School Act, the legislature adhered to our constitutional provisions and prohibited the creation of publicly funded sectarian charter schools. The Oklahoma Attorney General does not have the power to change our constitution, nor does he have the power to change our statutes by predicting an outcome of a future case litigated before a state or federal court.
The recent decisions of the US Supreme Court are not contextually similar to the suggestion that a publicly funded school district requiring affirmation of particular religious tenets and doctrine as a condition of admission would receive a similar endorsement from a court. The predictions suggested by the Oklahoma Attorney General are exactly that – predictions by a political figure of how a court may rule if faced with that legal question. We suggest letting a court of competent jurisdiction decide the matter first.
