But the staff, hoping to avoid debates over families’ religious beliefs, has chopped roughly 30 sections out of the curriculum, including a kindergarten lesson on the Golden Rule featuring Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and several excerpts about a Christian prayer the governor of Plymouth Colony said at the first Thanksgiving.  

The district’s elementary teachers “went through the materials looking for things that may be controversial,” said Superintendent Joe Craig. They didn’t feel those parts of the curriculum “were in line with what we wanted the lesson to focus on.” 

Fairfield’s process reflects the kind of that many districts have taken toward — the state-developed materials that prominently feature the Bible and Christianity. With feedback from 300 teachers, Fort Worth, the fifth largest district in the state, adopted the phonics portion of the curriculum, but turned down the units with religious material. Some districts ordered just a few books, likely for , while the Houston and Dallas districts opted to keep what they currently use.

Texas has spent roughly $100 million — and counting — to develop and promote its own reading curriculum. But some observers say they wouldn’t be surprised if districts aren’t rushing to pick it up, considering the State Board of Education approved it by a one-vote margin. 

“They may be reluctant to bring that same controversy into their districts, especially in communities with families of diverse religious backgrounds,” said Eve Myers, a consultant with Strive Public Policy Resources, a political consulting and lobbying firm that is tracking adoption of the program. “It’s potentially a distraction from their focus on the budget, student achievement, school safety and all the other pressing issues they must address.”

Texas has over 1,200 districts and about 600 charter schools with elementary grades. Of the state’s 20 largest districts, only Conroe, north of Houston, intends to use the program this fall. A shows that between May and late July, 144 districts and charters, mostly mid-sized or small, ordered the materials. 

State board members have asked for the total number of districts using Bluebonnet. “That’s the question we would all like to know,” said Pam Little, a board member who voted against the reading program last November.  

Other districts could be using the online version of the materials, but whether students would have actual books, and spend less time on screens, was a major debate last year during the board’s consideration of the program.

State leaders and conservative advocates say the religious content reflects a classical and appropriate way to teach literacy skills along with history and culture. Others like the emphasis on cursive writing and challenging vocabulary. In an interview with ����Ӱ�� last year, State Commissioner of Education Mike Morath said a phonics-based curriculum that also builds students’ background knowledge can help the state recover from in reading skills due to the pandemic.

But the program sparked a statewide debate over whether political leaders are forcing Christianity into public schools. Bluebonnet makes its debut in the classroom at the same time schools will be required, under a new state law, to display the 10 Commandments. Gov. Greg Abbott also signed in June that allows districts to offer a daily, voluntary period of time to pray and read the Bible or other religious texts. Under a similar 2023 law, districts can hire chaplains to volunteer as counselors, but aren’t participating.  

“There is definitely a disconnect between the radical far right agenda … and what school boards who are accountable to local families and students are actually going to do,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Interfaith Alliance, a national group that advocates for church-state separation. Texas, he said, is “taking away the rights of clergy and parents to lead religious instruction.”

‘Hard on the teacher’

In the 73,000-student Conroe school district, Dayren Carlisle, a curriculum director, said leaders picked Bluebonnet because teachers were previously working with a patchwork of materials. They often spent “arduous hours preparing for reading and writing instruction,” she told ����Ӱ�� in an email. Bluebonnet provides a coherent set of lessons that meet state standards, she said.

But parent Christine Yates advocated against it. 

“I don’t think religious-based instruction belongs in any type of public school setting,” said Yates, whose children will be in second and fourth grade this fall. Her family doesn’t attend church and she’s concerned that the lessons dealing with faith are just “borrowing trouble.” 

Becky Sherrill, a former Conroe teacher, sympathizes with educators who will have to navigate parent’s requests to opt their children out of the lessons. It’s a right that many parents might be more likely to exercise this fall because of a June U.S. Supreme Court opinion in favor of religious families who want their children exempted from hearing stories with LGBTQ themes.

“It’s hard on the teacher. It’s already so hard at Christmas or even with birthdays,” Sherrill said, referring to Jehovah’s Witnesses she has had as students. “You can’t give some kids cupcakes because they don’t celebrate birthdays.”

She’s already homeschooling her middle school son and has pulled her daughter, a fifth grader, out of the district as well, largely because of Bluebonnet and the 10 Commandments law. 

At a May board meeting, Carlisle explained to the board how teachers will field requests from parents who want to opt their children out of the lessons. 

“If a parent were to complain about this… we would have to find a completely different text,” she said. 

But that didn’t sit well with Tiffany Baumann Nelson, one of three , who call themselves Mama Bears, elected in 2022.

“There is no religion in this curriculum,” she argued. “They’re all historical references, and so in my opinion, there should be no alternative or modifications.”

Whether districts are removing biblical material or parents are opting their children out of the lessons, Little, the state board member, worries students could miss literacy skills they are supposed to learn. 

“Say an East Asian religious parent has decided they don’t want their child to have [a Bible story]. Is that child going to miss skill development?” she asked. Accommodating parents’ requests will also be a burden on district staff. “What is the cost involved in the manpower time for these districts to go through and eliminate the religious content? There was no need for the controversy that the religious content is going to start.” 

‘Reviewed it and loved it’

The state board narrowly approved the new program last fall after the Texas Education Agency spent roughly $84 million to adapt an existing reading curriculum, from the company Amplify. Renamed Bluebonnet, after the state flower, the Texas version includes highlights of Jesus’ ministry and offers an evangelical view of early American history. Lessons for example, include the , an art history unit based on the creation story from Genesis and scriptural references to the motto on the . 

The agency, which would not provide a list of all districts that have ordered the program, paid multiple companies and content experts to craft and review the lessons, including the far-right Texas Public Policy Foundation. Hillsdale College, a Christian school in Michigan, volunteered to work on units related to America’s founding, and a Christian media company, co-founded by Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel, contributed illustrations. But Texas officials refused to identify who wrote the biblical passages. 

In response to backlash, officials added more references to Islam and Hinduism and removed some texts that were offensive to Jews, but the final version still references Christianity more than other religions.

“We reviewed it and loved it,” said Cindi Castilla, president of the Texas Eagle Forum, a conservative organization. She pushed for state board approval of the curriculum last year, saying that there is “richness in biblical literature” and that Bible stories teach children character traits and the origins of the legal system. 

Since then, she examined the final version with retired educators who have experience teaching a classical curriculum and thinks it will strengthen students’ cursive and phonics skills. That’s why Gina Eubank wishes her grandchildren’s school districts — Katy, near Houston, and Belton, near Waco — had adopted the materials. 

“I watched … fourth- and sixth-grade honor students write a thank you note and was shocked by what I saw — the lack of legible handwriting and the horrific spelling,” she said.

‘Promote, market and advertise’

Districts on the fence about Bluebonnet can reconsider their decision next year. To make it more enticing, lawmakers added financial incentives — up to $60 per student for districts that use state-approved materials. That was likely one reason why the 27,000-student Lubbock schools adopted it, said Clinton Gill, a former math and science teacher in the district who now works for the Texas State Teachers Association.

At the same time, he thinks district leaders assume students will stand a better chance of performing well on the state test if officials match it up to a curriculum the state developed. Adopting Bluebonnet “also helps the district not have to hire staff to write curriculum when they get it from the state for free.”

The per-student bonus isn’t the only way the state aims to ensure Bluebonnet becomes the preferred choice. In December, the month after the board approved it, the Texas Education Agency quickly made Bluebonnet available to order. Materials from other publishers weren’t available until May.

“It seems that Bluebonnet Learning had an advantage,” Little told Morath, the commissioner, during . She said she heard complaints from publishers over the issue.

Morath called the delay a “one-time exacerbated problem” because the state had to add new language to contracts with publishers before making their materials available to districts. While the time lapse should be shorter next year, he said there would always be some gap.

In the current , lawmakers authorized Morath to contract with businesses to “promote, market and advertise” Bluebonnet. A provides $243 million to districts to help with implementation costs, like coaching for teachers. 

Last year’s budget included $10 million for regional education service centers to do similar work for districts adopting Bluebonnet. The centers are expected to for increasing the number of districts using the materials in their region to stay eligible for future funding. 

Some leaders in the state say that top-down pressure could alter the relationship the centers have traditionally had with school systems in their regions. They help districts, especially smaller ones with fewer central office staff, stay in compliance with state regulations or work on school improvement. 

The service centers have always been a “hub of knowledge,” said Martha Salazar-Zamora, superintendent of the Tomball Independent School District, north of Houston. Expecting districts to sell Bluebonnet, she said, “has been more of a strategic push.”

She doesn’t doubt that Bluebonnet will boost reading scores for some students, but Tomball is already rated a in the state’s accountability system.  Another reason why she didn’t consider the program is because a Spanish version is not yet available. Her district, where about 35% of students are , has a Spanish-English .

“I love anything that helps kids,” she said. “I just don’t think it’s the right tool for every district.”

That’s the date the state will begin to transfer public funds to St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to hire teachers, plan curriculum and prepare to open in August. Members of Oklahoma’s Virtual Charter School Board, he said, “betrayed their oath of office” last June when they voted 3-2 to approve a charter with the Catholic church to open the school. 

But making arguments that will likely reach the nation’s high court, the attorney for the school said St. Isidore is a private entity and signing a contract with the state did not turn it into a public one. 

“St. Isidore was a private organization before it received a charter. The state did not create it,” said Michael McGinley. “It will continue to exist if the state ever terminates the charter. It would have continued to exist if the application had not been granted.”

For nearly two hours, both sides presented very different views of St. Isidore. Attorneys for the charter board and the school portrayed it as a natural outgrowth of a recent “trilogy” of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that favor faith-based schools seeking public funds. But to Drummond — and to advocates for public schools — the case differs from those opinions in that it would not only redefine charters but upset a founding constitutional principle. 

“This case is not about exclusion of a religious entity from government aid,” he said. “It is about the state creation of a religious school which unequivocally establishes religion.” 

Some of the justices were clearly skeptical of the school’s argument and appeared uncomfortable with the position they found themselves in.

“Are we being used as a test case? Sure looks like it,” said Justice Yvonne Kauger. 

And Justice Noma Gurich pushed back on arguments in favor of allowing the school to open.

“Where is the choice for taxpayers in Oklahoma not to support the Catholic Church or the Baptist Church, or the Episcopal Church or the atheist or any other church?” she asked.

What’s clear is that for Oklahomans and the nation more broadly, the case pushes school choice into a new arena.

“I feel that so much is at stake, as a parent, as a taxpayer, but also as an American,” said Erin Brewer, who has two students in the Deer Creek Public Schools, north of Oklahoma City. She’s also a plaintiff in challenging the legality of the school. “We’re talking about the fundamentals of our democracy. We’ve always had the promise that government would never compel religion upon us.”

But Phil Sechler, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, who represents the charter board, said that because families apply to attend, the state isn’t compelling them to do anything. That point echoes arguments made in and , two cases in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of parents who wanted to use school choice programs to attend parochial schools.

“St. Isidore only gets funds if there is enrollment,” he said. “That breaks the circuit between religion and government.”

One argument against the school has been that if the state allows St. Isidore to open, it would have to approve applications from schools representing other religions. But Sechler dismissed concerns about opening the “floodgates” to Muslim schools, atheist schools and others. 

Organizations seeking to open a charter, he said, still have to meet “ample neutral criteria” and provide a quality education that meets a need. For example, they are required to have a financial plan, hire qualified teachers and administer tests.

Oklahoma offers a universal that provides up to $7,500 per student for private school tuition, but McGinley said for some families, that program isn’t enough. They can’t afford the rest of the tuition. 

“That’s a real hardship for a lot of families,” he said. Charter schools “provide an education where families don’t have to come up with that difference.”

Preston Green, a University of Connecticut education and law professor, called McGinley’s argument a “brilliant framing” that helps the school’s case. He added that if the question eventually reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, he could see the conservative justices siding with the Catholic church.

“It just wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. But he added that the Oklahoma charter case is about more than just religion. It’s also about public education funding. “There’s no real consideration about the impact on the public school system. This could really create some fiscal strain.”

St. Isidore plans to serve 500 students in its first year, and so far, has enrolled or received inquiries about applying from 200 students. Enrollment would increase each year until it reaches 1,500 by the 2028-29 school year. 

Green also addressed the question, which Justice Dana Kuehn raised, of whether the state could simply “cure the problem” by not having charter schools at all. Some legal experts have suggested that blue states would be more apt to go that route than to approve religious charters. 

But Green thinks that’s far-fetched.

“Charters are such a part of the school environment,” he said. “In Black and brown, especially Black communities, charter schools are very popular, and the concerns about separation of church and state just do not resonate as much.” 

While the justices asked a lot of questions about state law and precedent, Nicole Garnett,  a University of Notre Dame law professor who was instrumental in preparing the church’s application, said it’s likely the case won’t end in Oklahoma.

“The pivotal issue in their minds appears to be whether St. Isidore’s approval is consistent with Oklahoma law, but they also seemed to understand that the federal constitution must ultimately control the outcome of the case,” she said. “We are hopeful the court will rule soon and allow St. Isidore to begin serving kids in the fall.”

That’s why they’ve applied to send their daughter Chloe to St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, a first-of-its kind religious charter at the center of a national dispute over separation of church and state. 

Chloe is preparing for her confirmation at the end of April, a statement of her faith. Between Sundays, the family listens to a “Bible in a Year” from a Minnesota priest with a large social media following. But her mother worries about students at her daughter’s public school being sexually active and wants her to get the “wholesome” influences she thinks only a Catholic education would provide.

“Kids at that school don’t have the same values that we have. They’re constantly on their phones,” Joy said. “I’m not doing this to be some kind of trailblazer; I’m doing this for my kid.”

Those are typically among the reasons many parents opt for private and faith-based schools. But on Tuesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court will hear arguments in a precedent-setting case that examines whether publicly funded charter schools — which must uphold the same civil rights as traditional schools — can explicitly endorse religion. Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond will that the state’s Virtual Charter School Board violated both state and federal law when it voted 3-2 to approve the school’s charter application last June. Attorneys for the school, however, say preventing it from opening this fall would be religious discrimination that flies in the face of recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions.

Parties in the case recognize the significance of the moment. “It’s part of history, so I’m glad I’m going to be sitting there to watch how this unfolds,” said Robert Franklin, chair of the virtual charter board and one of two members to vote against the application. He supports school choice, but said “in Oklahoma we’re pushing this as far and as fast as we possibly can. I think it’s going to have some significant consequences.”

Notably, none of members who voted in favor of the school remain on the board. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed two, and , to his administration. The third, Scott Strawn, left to work at Baylor University in Texas.

To many observers, Bobek, who Stitt previously appointed to the state board of education, should not have been able to vote on the application. Republican House Speaker Charles McCall appointed him to the charter board just days before the vote, replacing a retired superintendent. Franklin asked him to recuse himself, but Bobek refused. According to Drummond’s office, his appointment should until five months later.

One of the most outspoken evangelists for the school, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, also won’t be represented before the court. But that’s not for a lack of trying. Walters, who dismisses the separation of church and state as a “,” failed three times to convince the court to carve out some time for the state education department during Tuesday’s oral arguments. He reasoned that since he supports the school, Drummond’s position isn’t the only one that matters. The school, however, joined Drummond in opposing the superintendent’s request, and Chief Justice M. John Kane turned Walters down.

The Catholic church’s effort to open St. Isidore — named for the of the internet — has split constitutional scholars and school choice experts from the start.

Religious freedom advocates say recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions laid the foundation for the nation’s first religious charter school. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue — a 2020 opinion about whether a family could use a tax credit scholarship at a faith-based school — the court said a “state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”

That’s where the school’s argument breaks down, Drummond wrote in .

“St. Isidore is not a ‘private school.’ Under Oklahoma law, it is [a] public school,” he wrote. “Therefore, these recent U.S. Supreme Court cases have no relevance to this dispute.” 

Despite Oklahoma being a deeply red state, its high court tends to lean . Regardless of how the Oklahoma justices rule, however, observers expect the issue to end up in federal court. 

Issues of discrimination

Drummond’s lawsuit is not the only effort to stop the school from opening Aug. 12. Public school advocates, parents and religious leaders filed in October against the charter board, Walters and the state education department. 

The case “raises important issues” about discrimination not addressed by Drummond’s lawsuit, said Alex Luchenitser, associate vice president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs.

The school, which is holding an until Wednesday, will accept students with disabilities, but its says that services or accommodations for students can’t be “in opposition to church teaching.” The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City declined to elaborate. In addition, the school might not accept students whose services would “significantly alter the regular classroom process.”

Last year, before the board approved the school, Andrea Kunkel, general counsel for a state school administrators organization, warned that charter schools can’t ignore special education law.

“Although St. Isidore may not have readily available all services that future students may need, it has the legal obligation to either provide and pay for those services through a different model or arrange for them to be provided by someone else and pay for them,” she wrote in a letter to the board. 

LGBTQ students can attend, but staff will only use pronouns and nicknames that match their biological sex at birth, a stance that echoes Walters’s position on gender identity issues. The state board passed a rule in October giving members final say over students’ requests to change sex or gender designations in school records. One transgender student is . The charter school will also enforce a dress code requiring clothing to “correspond to the student’s biological sex.”

Those rules “are strong grounds for blocking the planned operation and state funding of the school,” Luchenitser said. Their case, he added, reflects the views of taxpayers, parents and others “who will be harmed if St. Isidore is allowed to operate and receive state funds.”

No hearings have been held in that case, which is in state court, but last week, the defendants asked Judge Richard Ogden to dismiss it. 

St. Isidore’s student/parent suggests that students who don’t adapt well to online learning will be encouraged to return to their district schools. 

But Joy Stevens expects that her daughter, who has been homeschooled and attended another Oklahoma virtual charter school during the pandemic, will do well.

Like many students who prefer online school, Chloe has a hectic schedule. The 13-year-old is a competitive gymnast, spending several hours a week in training. She is learning to fly a plane and helps tend to her family’s farm animals and garden.

Her mother says the family would have used Oklahoma’s tax credit scholarship program to pay for private school tuition.

But “there’s just no option out here,” Stevens said. “If Chloe is accepted or chosen in the lottery, it is a sure sign of God’s will for her and our family.”

In 2012, it began with a vision in the head of a fellow at The Duke Endowment. What would happen if churches got involved with improving reading proficiency for young people?

A little over 10 years later, the results look promising for both student outcomes and parental choice, organizers say. The Duke Endowment is now investing substantially in studying what exactly is working and why – in the hopes that they may have discovered something that can be scaled across the state.

“There’s an element of whatever we’ve been doing, or we’ve been allowing to happen, that has worked,” said Kristen Richardson-Frick, an associate director at The Duke Endowment. “We want to continue that, but we also want to figure out exactly why that is.”

What is the Summer Literacy Initiative?

The nonprofit’s summer literacy initiative started at two sites and has grown to 21. Each site provides small classes – with a 6-to-1 ratio of students to teachers, and 80 to 90 hours of literacy instruction during camps. The camps range from four to six weeks long.

It is modeled on a framework of six principles. In its infancy, the summer programs focused on hiring the highest-performing teachers, training everyone working with students in literacy instruction. That instruction meant balanced literacy until a couple of years ago, when the state shifted to instruction grounded in the science of reading and The Duke Endowment followed suit.

The principles break down into two primary goals, and The Duke Endowment enlists the help of Harvard literacy researcher Helen Chen for support. Chen came on board in 2016, when there were only two sites.

“Helen will be coaching all of the sites on principles four, five and six,” Richardson-Frick said. “Those are the things that really we think drive the student outcomes. And one, two and three are kind of the building of the environment.”

Offering an option for the youngest learners, and choice for others

The reading camps run by school districts, as mandated under the original Read to Achieve law in 2012, are offered to students in first, second, and third grades. The Duke Endowment hopes to fill a need for kindergartners who are striving readers, or whose families want to avoid a summer slide.

The setting in a church offers some other things, too. Some parents don’t want to send their kids to school for the summer and are more likely to choose to send their kids to church. The church sites have pastors and volunteers that feed the kids and, as Chen puts it, “love on them constantly.” 

The choice of a non-school setting, Duke Endowment leaders say, could get more students help over the summer. Students who complete first, second, or third grade behind benchmark in reading are given priority eligibility for district-run reading camps. Last year, only 21.9% of those first-graders, 36.1% of those second-graders, and 42.9% of those third-graders attended the district-run summer reading camps. 

“So you have all of these kids who need it out there who aren’t showing up at the school,” Richardson-Frick said. “And this, again, provides a choice for those families that would be open to sending their kids to a non-school-based, but a community-based, site – more like a summer camp.”

How churches are chosen, and why the church might be the X-factor

The Duke Endowment holds fast to its values of cultural humility and trauma-informed approaches when it chooses church sites. 

“What I love about (our) first two principles is, we start with that thriving and engaged church community,” she said. “We enlist strong community investment. And we’re pushing for racial concordance explicitly with the churches.”

Given the population they serve, the summer literacy programs focus on wraparound services — which make the church setting seem just as important.

The churches work creatively to resolve transportation challenges. Sometimes that means use of the church bus or van, while other times it means engaging with a community partner.

The churches also have families who volunteer to cook breakfast and lunch, and prepare snacks. And not just a USDA-approved meal, Chen said, which can be full of sugar and lack some nutrition.

“And then you wonder why the kids are bouncing off the wall,” Chen said. “(The church sites) are saying no, I’m making eggs and making sausages. They can have as much as they want until they’re full because our kids come hungry.”

That’s part of what Richardson-Frick and Chen mean when they say the churches love on these kids. The love is shown through acknowledging student needs holistically, they say.

“You have to go this fine line in churches between being faith-based versus faith-placed,” Chen said. “This is faith-placed, which means it’s in a church and we think that is part of the special sauce.”

The church setting, Chen said, puts the mission of teaching kids to read under a broader mission: To do God’s work.

“We all love the kids – I’m a teacher, I know I love my kids,” Chen said. “But what does that mean here [at the churches]? That means it’s incumbent on the church to overcome barriers that the schools might not have the resources to do.”

Gains suggest there may be something to it

Folks at The Duke Endowment believe they’ve found something that’s working. Now, they’re trying to measure what that is.

The data they collected using pre-camp and post-camp assessment results show that reading growth is happening. Last year, these sites served 429 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. Of these, the families for 342 students consented to collection of assessment data. 

That data showed gains for students. One of the measures they use is DIBELS progress-monitoring rapid assessment across six skills – including letter naming fluency, nonsense word fluency, oral reading fluency, and accuracy.

Why is it working? Organizers say it could be the ratio of one teacher to six students, or perhaps the social-emotional attention that comes with being in the church setting with spiritual leaders and volunteers. But, they say, they hear pretty consistent feedback from teachers that leads them to suspect another key factor.

“They’ll say there’s something about teaching here that’s special,” Chen said. “They get to love on the kids in a different way. It’s smaller classroom sizes, so obviously they can devote more attention. And then it’s like all the wraparound services. We always hear from teachers that, not only do we get to love on the kids, but there’s an entire community loving on the kids, and that impacts the church volunteers as much as it impacts the students.”

The Duke Endowment wants to understand what seems to be working and why. For that, this year they are working with an outside evaluator. 

What TDE hopes to learn from the evaluation process

Chen remembers the surprise and hope in organizers’ voices when she joined the literacy institute initiative in 2016.

“We think we have something,” they told her. “We think we are doing something that’s really special. Our teachers are telling us their students are making huge gains. We want to know if we have a thing and, if so, what’s its impact on kids.”

“And I was struck, from the beginning, about the integrity with which they wanted to do this,” Chen said. “They didn’t want to just say, oh, everybody loves it. They wanted to actually identify the factors that contributed to it, and to learn how to scale it so that it could be this great thing for many, many more kids.”

At the time, The Duke Endowment wanted Chen to help put in more systematic processes, as well as develop an overall vision, in order to better measure what was happening. As time went on, Chen told them they needed something else: an outside evaluator.

The team brought in the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2020 to fill that neeed. AIR is collecting data on setting, teachers at each of the sites, services offered, family engagement, and – of course – instruction. The plan is to use both observational and analytical data to parse out practices that lead to better outcomes, and then share that out to the public.

“The research has to be absolutely accessible and valuable to the practitioners – and that means DPI, that means district leaders, school leaders, and teachers,” Chen said. “What they’re doing, I think, it’s telling the story of not just what this is and who it’s serving, but why we think it works and why we think you could do it.”

Editor’s note: The Duke Endowment supports the work of EdNC.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The history of Indigenous peoples in Wisconsin is deep and abundant, yet it’s a history that has long been glossed over without proper attention or, in many cases, unacknowledged completely.

on Madison’s west side is pushing against that narrative of erasure through a voluntary land tax that goes beyond simply acknowledging that the land under the church once belonged to the Ho-Chunk Nation — whose members were forced from the land.

“We started researching to understand how the land that the church stands on came to be the church’s land,” said the Rev. Miranda Hassett, rector of St. Dunstan’s. “We felt like that needed to be accompanied by some restorative actions. Taking some actions to kind of make amends, and move toward restoring wholeness and being better allies, even in small ways.”

She added, “We’re pretty close to a historic Ho-Chunk village, in a part of the southwestern corner of Lake Mendota. That was part of the territory that was ceded in the 1832 Treaty that dislocated and removed the Ho-Chunk, so our initial thought was to make a gift to the Ho-Chunk tribe.”

Hassett contacted the Rev. Kerri Parker, executive director of the (WCC). St. Dunstan’s is a member of the WCC, and Hassett thought the effort could benefit from collaboration. As an organization with 75 years of history that connects 21 different Christian traditions across the state, the WCC is no stranger to facilitating solutions to modern social issues. 

“We find that we can do a lot of things more effectively together than we could do alone,” Parker said. “Our core values … that animate our work are courage, justice and holy imagination.”

Beyond working with social issues such as COVID safety, racial justice and refugee aid, the WCC is also committed to acknowledgement, restorative justice and current issues facing Indigenous communities.

“We have taken the time to start building relationships with leaders and educators,” Parker said. “You can say you want to give money, but you’re not really doing the work unless you have that meaning level between people …  It’s about understanding why this money is changing hands, and how it all came to be.”

Parker connected Hassett to Bill Quackenbush, the Ho-Chunk’s tribal historic preservation officer. On Quackenbush’s advice, the church decided to pay the voluntary tax to the Wisconsin Inter-Tribal Repatriation Committee. 

“That seemed like the appropriate entity,” Hassett said. “I think Bill was thinking, if this church does it, maybe other entities will follow suit. Rather than parse it out tribe by tribe and try to figure out exactly whose territory everybody’s sitting on, it makes sense for this organization that represents all the Wisconsin tribes to have that role here.”

Hassett said the church’s $4,000 payment is a first for the repatriation committee. Parker hopes it won’t be the last.

“I think about this event, this moment of possibility, as an example of instigating holy imagination in people,” she said. “Look at this thing that this church did. I wonder what we could do?”

‘We all have a creator’

Hassett presented the check to Quackenbush at the repatriation committee’s Aug. 16 meeting at the Radisson Hotel on the Oneida Reservation. The committee includes historic preservation officers from tribes in Wisconsin whose work includes repatriation of artifacts to Indigenous nations from individuals and state museums and preserving historic sites, such as effigy mounds.

“We all have a creator,” Quackenbush said. “All of this (land acknowledgements and donations) is symbolic of a healing process, but also a step forward. … The tribes can’t do it alone. We need state agencies and other organizations.”

The check was presented in a purple envelope, which Parker said is the color of repentance.

“We acknowledge that our ability to worship on Ho-Chunk land came at a great cost to those people,” Hassett said at the meeting.

Much discussion at the meeting revolved around the Doctrine of Discovery, which was Catholic doctrine that essentially permitted Christian European nations to subjugate and spread forced Christianity on Indigenous peoples in the Americas and Africa.

“The Doctrine has become the foundation of people’s understanding relative to North America and its original inhabitants,” she said. “The settlers had a sense of understanding that their mission was for God and king. That understanding has become part of our psyche. It’s ingrained in our laws and was part of the idea of Manifest Destiny. It’s not just history, but still happening today.”

‘This is something we owe’

Hassett said the payment is not charity — it’s part of the church’s budget of expenses related to owning the property.

“We have money we give away to organizations that are doing good in the community,” she said. “This is different from that. This isn’t from our charity, or generosity. This is something we owe. That was important to me.”

The voluntary land tax is just one piece of what Hassett sees as a multitude of ways in which work can be done to help mend a history that has seen Indigenous people subjugated and erased from social recognition. 

“We want to be allies in the sense that, we’re going to observe in some way, we’re going to try to mark , and when there’s an issue to protest or a legislative issue that’s important to the tribes, we’re going to pay attention, show up for that, and lend our voices.”

Teach The Truth Wisconsin is part of the Wisconsin Council of Churches’ effort to educate about U.S. history that includes how structural issues such racism, sexism and marginalization of Indigenous peoples have shaped the country and the effect they still have on society today.

“We’re encouraging people to make videos, have community events, or anything that helps people understand how vital it is that we tell these stories and rehearse these histories,” said Parker of the WCC. “In a time when there are movements that say, ‘That’s hurtful, or that makes people feel bad,’ it’s really important that we understand the truth and the difficult histories that are part of our legacy here in the United States.”

Hassett noted that St. Dunstan’s stands near an effigy mound, a reminder of the Ho-Chunk who once lived there — and their resilience. 

“They were removed, but they kept coming back to their ancestral homelands to care for their ancestors’ graves and engage in the historical ecological practices of their people,” Hassett said. “Eventually, they were able to buy land and really reestablish a stake in Wisconsin, which is amazing.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

But other families, and those on all sides of the school choice issue, are already speculating about how far the court’s conservative majority will go.

One of those families is the Nelsons, the other plaintiffs in , which the court will hear Dec. 8. This fall, Troy and Angela Nelson’s son Royce will be a sophomore at Erskine Academy in South China, Maine — the secular private school the family chose when they had to forgo “the religious school they believed was best for their kids,” said Michael Bindas, a senior attorney with the libertarian Institute for Justice, who represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit over the state’s town “tuitioning” policy.

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The Supreme Court moved in the direction of greater religious freedom last year with its opinion in , which focused on a tax credit scholarship program. But the decision was limited. While the court said states can’t ban religious schools from choice programs simply because they’re religious, they left open the question of whether states could exclude them because they might spend the money on religious instruction. Focusing on that second question, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Maine. Now Carson asks the Supreme Court to take the next step and rule that religious schools can participate in choice programs regardless of their curriculum. Some argue a ruling for the plaintiffs in Carson would be another step toward allowing religious organizations to run charter schools — a worst-case scenario for many advocates.

In the short term, the outcome in Carson would affect New England states with tuition assistance programs, in which towns without a school cover the cost of tuition at public or private schools.

In June, the that students in Vermont can use public funds at religious schools. So far the state hasn’t appealed the ruling, perhaps waiting for the Supreme Court to weigh in on Carson. And maybe in anticipation of the justices siding with the plaintiffs, Gov. Chris Sununu in neighboring New Hampshire signed in July removing the restriction on religious schools in that state’s tuitioning program.

A decision for the plaintiffs could prompt some states to get out of the voucher business if they can’t place restrictions on curriculum, noted Preston Green, an education professor at the University of Connecticut.

Other states with private school voucher programs, such as Florida, Indiana and North Carolina, already allow religious schools to participate.

“Most legislatures do the right thing when they adopt these programs,” said Bindas, with the Institute for Justice, adding that Espinoza’s opponents argue the decision didn’t specifically say states can’t ban religious schools because they teach religion.“If the Supreme Court rules correctly, that argument will be removed from the arsenal of the school choice opponents.”

A more recent ruling in a case involving a Catholic social services agency has some legal experts suggesting moderates on the court won’t go too far.

Derek Black, a constitutional law professor at the University of South Carolina, said he doesn’t think the court is ready to “jump off the cliff and say the state can’t even restrict money being spent on the bread for communion.”

While it didn’t directly focus on education, the court’s 9-0 June ruling in is relevant, Black said. In that case, the justices held that the city couldn’t exempt some foster care agencies from its nondiscrimination policy while denying the same exception to a Catholic agency just because it was opposed to placing children with same-sex couples.

While the decision was unanimous, conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch argued for a broader interpretation in favor of greater religious freedom. But Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Stephen Breyer, opted for more narrow protections that still allow government agencies to generally enforce nondiscrimination laws.

“Do the justices want to create breathing space for religion? Yes,” Black said. “Do they want religion to overcome the state? No.”

‘Dominoes falling’ 

The possibility of a ruling in favor of the Carsons nonetheless alarms those who believe such programs violate the First Amendment.

Green doesn’t think a decision for the plaintiffs would immediately lead to churches or other religious organizations running charter schools, but added, “You’re really, really close.”

“This is about dominoes falling and it’s a deliberative legal strategy,” he said. “They don’t need to do it right away. They just need to establish a true line where they can make these legal arguments.”

Nicole Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a colleague of Justice Barrett when she taught there, addressed the issue last December. She argued in for the conservative Manhattan Institute that even the Espinoza decision allowed for religious charter schools.

Garnett said that while states established charters as new public schools, they share similarities with private schools because parents choose them.

“As programs of private choice, charter school programs may include religious schools,” she wrote, adding, “If charter schools are permissible, religious charter schools must be permitted.”

But Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, rejects the notion that charters are private.

“Charter schools are public schools and are subject to the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause,” she said. “Charter schools have never been able to, and cannot now, teach religion. Neither Espinoza nor a win for plaintiffs in Carson changes that.”

She stands by despite an Aug. 9 ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in over whether charter schools’ uniform policies can require girls to wear skirts. The court ruled that charters are not “state actors” and that requiring girls to wear skirts violates their constitutional rights. This decision could strengthen the argument for religious charters.

In a recent , Black and Rebecca Holcombe, former Vermont education secretary, wrote that religious charter schools would “take a wrecking ball to public school funding.”

“States would suddenly become financially responsible for millions of students who previously chose to forgo public education,” they wrote. “In places already struggling to maintain public infrastructure, public budgets would now be on the hook for religious infrastructure.”

But one thing is clear, Garnett wrote: Whether advocates pursue the issue through legislation, an attorney general’s opinion or in the courts, “the legality of religious charter schools will be tied up in litigation, perhaps for years.”

Olivia Carson’s parents, David and Amy Carson, can relate. They filed their initial complaint about the state’s tuitioning program in 2018, when Olivia started 10th grade.

Bangor Christian Schools — where a church, classroom buildings and a radio station sit on a 35-acre, wooded campus — is a family tradition. Olivia’s parents attended the school. So did David Carson’s mother. Her aunt and uncle work there, and Olivia spent all of her K-12 years there.

“We kept [Olivia] at Bangor Christian just because of the environment and the academics,” said Amy Carson, who manages the paperwork for her husband’s construction business. “It’s been good for her, being an only child. It’s like a whole other family.”