Legal efforts to found the nation’s first religious charter school in Oklahoma have reignited, with a rejected Jewish charter school and a former U.S. congressman filing a lawsuit against the state Tuesday.
The founding group of Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School and former Florida U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who applied to open the school, sued the state’s attorney general and the Statewide Charter School Board in Oklahoma City federal court.
The statewide board, which governs charter schools, voted earlier this month to deny the school’s application to open. The Oklahoma Supreme Court forbade the board from permitting state-funded religious schools in a 2024 ruling against a Catholic charter school.
Deutsch and Ben Gamla’s founders allege religious groups are wrongfully excluded from opening charter schools with faith-based instruction — a similar argument Oklahoma Catholic leaders made when trying to establish St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
They contend the Jewish school’s rejection amounts to religious discrimination, violating the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They asked a federal judge to block the state from enforcing Oklahoma laws that require charter schools to be non-sectarian.
“We’re asking the court to end that blatant religious targeting and allow families to choose schools that are best for them,” Deutsch said in a statement Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, Shauna Peters, said it is reviewing the lawsuit and will respond in due time.
A law firm representing the Statewide Charter School Board didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Attorney General Genter Drummond led the legal fight against the Catholic school, contending the concept of a publicly funded religious school would violate church-state separation enshrined in both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions. The state Supreme Court sided with him.
Members of the Statewide Charter School Board said they rejected Ben Gamla’s application solely to comply with the Supreme Court ruling and will support the school’s case in court. They hired a conservative Christian legal group, the First Liberty Institute, to represent them.
After the Catholic school was rejected at the state level, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in April of last year. The nation’s highest Court ended in a 4-4 deadlock, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. That allowed the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling to stand.
One of the Catholic school’s founding board members, Brett Farley, now holds a similar board position with the Jewish school as a representative of prospective parents.
All charter school boards in the state must have a parent member. Drummond called into question whether Farley, who is Catholic, would genuinely enroll a child in the school. Farley told Oklahoma Voice he “would definitely” consider the school for his daughter, if it opens.
For this reason and others, Drummond contended Ben Gamla’s board and application had multiple deficiencies beyond the religious component that should have contributed to its rejection. He filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court against the statewide board, alleging it deliberately weakened its own legal position to benefit the school’s federal case.
Drummond asked that an Oklahoma County district judge order the board to issue a new and complete rejection letter to the school.
Meanwhile, multiple Oklahoma synagogues and Jewish organizations have voiced concerns over the school. In a January joint statement, they said Ben Gamla’s founding group failed to meaningfully consult the local Jewish community.
Deutsch told the statewide board he spoke with about 10 Jewish parents and 20 people total in Oklahoma before applying to open Ben Gamla. He founded six secular charter schools in Florida that have a similar name.
The Oklahoma school would offer an online-based education to students K-12 that is “intellectually rigorous and deeply rooted in Jewish knowledge, values and lived tradition,” according to its application.
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence.
