This is likely going to end up going all the way to the supreme court which with its current make up may rule as you may expect and fear. There is likely a reason this is happening now. The issue is essentially can a private and religious* charter school be funded by taxes. The governor has hand selected members of the board that allowed its creation. Its no surprise to anyone anymore that this can happen. It is incredibly frustrating that those in power are so comfortable with such obvious and overt intent to push their objectives through whatever means necessary regardless of legality.
unfortunately a contributor here is also their State Superintendent of Public Instruction. for the unaware, that’s an elected position in Oklahoma and was won last year by an avowed Christian nationalist who wants to destroy the education system. without exaggeration, the guy thinks teachers are indoctrinating children with communism and that teacher’s unions should basically not be legal. he’s such an extremist even other Republicans in-state are a bit mortified by some of the fights he’s picked.
Well, I’m expecting no one to notice our drop from 40th to 45th place in education…
The start of the slippery slope…
I’m pretty sure the slip started back in 1954 when ‘under god’ was added to the pledge of allegiance. We’ve managed to keep it mostly limited to that until relatively recently, but their foot has been in the door for decades.