Tennessee approves first religious charter school, setting up potential landmark Supreme Court case

By Ray Domanico

State approval of a Christian charter school could become the next landmark Supreme Court case on religion and public education.

Topics: Education | Politics and Law | The Social Order | States and Cities

In late April, the Jackson–Madison County School System Board in Tennessee approved a charter for Union Academy, a "faith-based Christian college preparatory" institution. The decision will likely give the Supreme Court another chance to rule on the constitutionality of religious charter schools, currently prohibited nationwide.

An earlier challenge to Oklahoma's ban on religious charters made it to the Court, which split 4–4 on the issue after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself because of a possible conflict of interest. This left the Oklahoma law standing. The federal constitutional issues, as explained by Manhattan Institute's Ilya Shapiro, remain ripe for review.

No legal challenge to the opening of Union Academy has yet been filed, though some national or state-level advocacy group will likely step in. This is a line-in-the-sand issue for many charter school advocates and those opposed to the use of public money to support religious instruction.

Unique Features of the Union Academy Case

The Union Academy story has some unique features:

• Origin of the proposal: The charter was not proposed by an interest group or private actor. Rather, the superintendent of the Jackson–Madison County School District, Marlon King, solicited the proposal from Union University, a private Christian college in Jackson, Tennessee, and the county's democratically elected school board approved it.

• Legal basis: Tennessee's Charter School Law allows local boards to approve "a waiver of any state board rule or statute that inhibits or hinders the charter school's ability to meet its goals or comply with its mission statement." The approved charter application cites numerous instances of state law and regulations prohibiting the exercise of religion in publicly supported schools and the rationale for waiving those prohibitions.

The School's Religious and Academic Mission

The school is unambiguously Christian. Religious values and materials are not an add-on to its program—they are at the core of it. Its application declares:

Union Academy will be a Christ-centered, academically rigorous public charter school designed to serve families in Jackson, Tennessee and the surrounding communities who are seeking a high quality, tuition-free education grounded in Christian values. The school's mission is to provide Christ-centered education that promotes excellence and character development in service to Church and society. Union Academy will deliver a strong academic program to K-12 students with an emphasis on literacy, mathematics, science, critical thinking, and great texts of the Western tradition interconnected with Biblical worldview.

The school's program is academically rigorous. Its application commits the school to compliance with high academic standards, ongoing assessment of student progress, and curricula such as language arts, Singapore math, and other proven instructional approaches.