What About Religious Charter Schools?

By Lawrence D. Weinberg & Bruce S. Cooper

Charter schools are gaining in popularity, with approximately 4,000 now open, enrolling some 1.1 million U.S. children with more participating every year. Since the charter school movement began in 1991 in Minnesota, these schools have filled a need in American society, giving individuals, communities, and local associations a chance to create their own schools—with tax dollars paying the basic costs.

A major, unresolved question remains, however: What about opening and funding religious charter schools? How would localities handle the many complexities of funding charter schools that have a religious, social, and cultural mission? History offers some perspective.

When the state of Oregon passed a law in 1922 requiring that all school-aged children attend a public school in their community, the issue of religious freedom in education went to court in the case Pierce v. Society of Sisters . In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that outlawing attendance at private or religious schools was unconstitutional, a violation of parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children. The court also noted, however, that recognizing the right to attend private/religious schools is different from legalizing the public...