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In Oklahoma, the start of the school year is just six weeks away. But one closely watched school that had planned to open in 2024 is now in limbo: St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, a tuition-free, online, K-12 institution.

St. Isidore received a controversial go-ahead from a state school board in 2023. Like all charter schools, it would have been funded with public money, but with more independence than typical public schools. St. Isidore’s would have been the nation’s first religious charter school, raising immediate concerns about its constitutionality.

Oklahoma’s attorney general, Republican Gentner Drummond, soon filed suit against the charter school board, arguing that the school would have violated both the state and federal constitutions. The dispute reached Oklahoma’s Supreme Court in April 2024.

The court rendered its decision on June 25. In a 7-to-1 judgment, the court invalidated the attempt to open St. Isidore, directing the statewide virtual charter school board to rescind its contract. Yet in a vote four days later, the board declined to do so, indicating the school would not accept public funding until July 25, 2025, at the earliest – essentially delaying its opening.

Charter schools are at the heart of the parental choice movement, which pushes for parents to have greater control in selecting where their children attend school, without having to pay private school fees. The country’s almost 8,000 charter schools educate about 3,700,000 students, or 7.4% of U.S. children.

Parent choice advocates may have thought the timing was right to try to open a........

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