US court rules in favor of Jewish charter school in Oklahoma

A federal judge ruled that Oklahoma may not deny public charter school funding to the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation based solely on its religious character.

In his decision for the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma, Judge David Russell stated that the state cannot single out religious schools for exclusion from public charter funding because of their religion. The ruling addresses a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, which requires charter schools to be nonsectarian and unaffiliated with religious groups. This order applies as long as the lawsuit continues through the federal court system.

The decision follows a similar legal defeat for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. That Catholic institution sued the state in 2023 after being excluded from the charter school program, but the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a ruling in that case. While the Catholic school's lawsuit received support from U.S. bishops, it ultimately did not secure charter funding. It remains unclear if this new ruling will change the status of the Catholic school.