Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he “100%” supports the state approving a Catholic virtual charter school and disagrees with the attorney general, who says it would violate state law. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) Oklahoma was poised next month to be the first state to allow a religious charter school. But whether a state board still votes on the application is up in the air in light of the new attorney general’s opinion on the matter. Attorney General Gentner Drummond last week withdrew his predecessor’s legal opinion supporting an application for a Catholic virtual charter school, saying he was uncomfortable advising the charter board to violate the state constitution’s ban on funding religious schools. Approval of such a school could “create a slippery slope” and require the state to spend public dollars on charter schools “whose tenets are diametrically opposed” to the beliefs of many Oklahomans, he wrote to Rebecca Wilkinson, executive director of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board. Wilkinson had no comment on the withdrawal of the opinion. But Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, a policy organization, said representatives from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City plan to meet with her before […]
