{"id":1945425,"date":"2023-06-06T13:56:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oklahoma-catholic-charter-school-faces-swift-atheist-backlash-and-lawsuit-threats\/"},"modified":"2023-06-06T13:58:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:58:36","slug":"oklahoma-catholic-charter-school-faces-swift-atheist-backlash-and-lawsuit-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oklahoma-catholic-charter-school-faces-swift-atheist-backlash-and-lawsuit-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"A Catholic charter school in Oklahoma is facing backlash from atheists and threats of a lawsuit."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Foklahoma-catholic-charter-school-faces-swift-atheist-backlash-and-lawsuit-threats%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1945425&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Oklahoma Approves Nation&#8217;s First Religious Public Charter School, Faces Backlash from Atheists and Other Groups<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the application of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School on Monday, marking the first time a state had approved a religiously affiliated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-biden-blasted-for-huge-funds-reopening-schools\/\" title=\"WATCH: Biden Blasted For Huge Funds Reopening Schools\">charter school<\/a>. The effort was championed by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK), who praised the approval of the new charter school as a &#8220;win for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-calls-new-yorks-covid-19-restrictions-discriminatory-sides-with-religious-leaders\/\" title=\"Supreme Court Calls New York\u2019s COVID-19 Restrictions \u2018Discriminatory,\u2019 Sides With Religious Leaders\">religious liberty<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But the approval of the new charter school has sparked controversy and legal threats from groups such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. These groups argue that the use of taxpayer funds to pay for sectarian religious education violates the separation of church and state.<\/p>\n<h3>Legal Challenges Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>The Freedom from Religion Foundation has called Oklahoma&#8217;s approval of the school a &#8220;test case for the Catholic Church&#8221; and has indicated that it is considering &#8220;a direct legal challenge.&#8221; The organization&#8217;s Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor stated, &#8220;State officials have allowed their personal religious preferences to take precedence over the Constitution by voting to force taxpayers to support a Catholic charter school.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Americans United for Separation of Church and State has also vowed to take legal action against Oklahoma, with its President and CEO Rachel Laser stating, &#8220;It\u2019s hard to think of a clearer violation of the religious freedom of Oklahoma taxpayers and public-school families than the state establishing the nation\u2019s first religious public charter school.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Defending the Separation of Church and State<\/h3>\n<p>Both groups had opposed St. Isidore&#8217;s application prior to its approval, citing violations of state and federal law. The controversy surrounding the approval of the nation&#8217;s first religious public charter school highlights the ongoing debate over the separation of church and state in America.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the application of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the nation&#8217;s first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oklahoma-catholic-charter-school-faces-swift-atheist-backlash-and-lawsuit-threats\/\" title=\"A Catholic charter school in Oklahoma is facing backlash from atheists and threats of a lawsuit.\">religiously affiliated public charter school<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Legal challenges have been threatened by groups such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who argue that the use of taxpayer funds for sectarian religious education violates the separation of church and state.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cornell-students-defend-racially-segregated-rock-climbing-course\/\" title=\"Cornell Students Defend Racially Segregated Rock Climbing Course\">controversy highlights<\/a> the ongoing debate over the separation of church and state in America.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>religious public charter school. Atheists and other groups are threatening to sue Oklahoma for this decision. The St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, making it the first religiously affiliated public charter school in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1945426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[20725,4265,6011,9325,4528,4585,12474,3924,4855],"class_list":["post-1945425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-atheists","tag-backlash","tag-catholic","tag-charter","tag-facing","tag-lawsuit","tag-oklahoma","tag-school","tag-threats"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1945426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}