Oklahoma can’t deny Jewish charter school from opening, federal judge decides

OKLAHOMA CITY — In a decision that could enable the nation’s first religious charter school to open, an Oklahoma City federal judge has ruled in favor of a Jewish school seeking to operate with taxpayer funds.

Oklahoma Western District Judge David L. Russell decided Thursday that the Statewide Charter School Board violated the First Amendment when it voted against establishing Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School solely because the school would teach a particular religion. 

The board had denied opening Ben Gamla in light of a 2024 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that rejected taxpayer-funded, faith-based charter schools.

“The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board wanted to follow the First Amendment, but regretfully, they were bound by Oklahoma law when reviewing Ben Gamla’s application,” the board’s attorney, A.J. Ferate, said Thursday. “The court’s ruling today affirms that religious charter school applicants should not be excluded from consideration simply because of their religiosity.”

The board will review the court order at its next meeting and take the appropriate next steps, according to a statement from its hired legal firm, the First Liberty Institute.

The decision allows the school to proceed toward opening. However, attorneys on all sides of the case have said the matter could be caught in a string of appeals ultimately leading to the U.S. Supreme Court, which deadlocked on a previous attempt to open a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma.

Two groups of state residents intervened in the Ben Gamla case to oppose the school’s creation. One, mostly made up of Jewish Oklahomans, is represented by local and national legal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 

The judge’s conclusion “opens the door to a dangerous sea change for our democracy,” the group’s legal team said in a statement.

“Forcing taxpayers to fund religious public schools violates state and federal law,” the attorneys said. “Ben Gamla will not only indoctrinate students into a particular religion — it will discriminate against families that don’t share the school’s beliefs. We will continue to fight for all Oklahomans, who deserve public schools that are secular and open to all students.”

Charter schools have long been considered to be public schools because they primarily rely on taxpayer funding, though they’re run by non-elected boards and are exempt from certain regulations.

Attorneys supporting Ben Gamla contend charter schools more closely resemble private entities that should be free to espouse a religion.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, of Florida, applied to open Ben Gamla as a free online charter school. Ben Gamla would teach the tenets of the Jewish faith along with typical school subjects.

Deutsch, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said Thursday the court decision is a “victory for educational freedom, religious equality, and families in Oklahoma.”

“The state cannot single out religious schools for exclusion while welcoming everyone else into the charter school program,” he said in a statement. “We’re eager to open wide the doors of educational opportunity in Oklahoma.”

The federal judge agreed after listening to arguments from all sides of the case in an Aug. 5 hearing. Excluding private applicants from opening a state-funded school just because of their religious character violates the free exercise of religion, Russell decided.

Unlike the state Supreme Court, the federal judge determined charter schools are not government actors who must remain secular.

An Oklahoma law that requires charter schools to be nonsectarian “expressly discriminates” against religious schools that would otherwise be eligible for state funding, he decided.

However, Attorney General Gentner Drummond contended in a separate lawsuit that the board intentionally excluded other concerns raised about Ben Gamla’s viability outside of the religious element when voting to reject its application. Drummond alleged the board did so to benefit the school’s chances to succeed in court. 

That lawsuit, filed in Oklahoma County District Court, hasn’t had any movement in months, records show. The Attorney General’s Office confirmed Thursday that the case is still active.

Drummond, who led the legal fight against the Catholic charter school, originally was listed as a defendant in the federal lawsuit over Ben Gamla, but he had himself removed from the case.

“In 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a religious charter school violates the Oklahoma Constitution, state law and the U.S. Constitution,” Drummond said in a statement Thursday. “The U.S. Supreme Court left that decision in place last year.”