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An ongoing point of contention in education is the values schools instill in their students. A recent example concerns charter schools, which are publicly funded, tuition-free, and open to all students. They operate with greater autonomy and flexibility from district rules in exchange for meeting specific performance goals outlined in their charters.
But what about religious charters? St. Isidore, a virtual Catholic school in Oklahoma, has been trying to become the country’s first of its kind. It came close last year when it asked the Supreme Court to reverse an Oklahoma court ruling that a taxpayer-funded Catholic charter would violate state law requiring charter schools to be nonsectarian. But with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, the Court split 4-4.
Most recently, a federal court cleared the way for a Jewish charter school in Oklahoma. The order, issued Sept. 24, came in a case filed by the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, temporarily halting the state’s board from enforcing the provision that disallows religious charters. However, on Oct. 12, Oklahoma officials denied the application.
The controversy goes beyond Christian and Jewish schools.
In October 2025, the RAIR Foundation reported, “Taxpayer-Funded Sharia: Florida’s School Choice Program Is Rapidly Building a Parallel Islamic Power Structure.”
The article goes on to explain that Florida’s school-choice program funds Sharia-run schools led by individuals “embedded in Muslim Brotherhood–linked networks that enforce a rival legal order, attract and consolidate Muslim migration, and convert public dollars into permanent parallel Islamic infrastructure on American soil.”
Clearly, a Sharia-based curriculum conflicts with core American principles, including individual liberty and equal rights under the law. Instruction is not limited to faith or worship; it teaches a comprehensive system of law, authority, hierarchy, rights, and obligations that directly opposes the U.S.
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