For the second time, the state board overseeing charter schools rejected the Ben Gamla Jewish online charter school.
Proponents hoped it would be a winning test case for publicly funded religious education before the U.S. Supreme Court. But Monday’s vote closes that door, at least for now.
Even though a majority voted to approve, the 4-3 decision fell one vote short of the five needed for the Statewide Charter School Board to authorize the school. One member was absent and one seat is vacant.
Ben Gamla can submit a revised application to the Statewide Charter School Board if they choose to restart the process.
The school planned to teach Judaism alongside traditional, secular school subjects.
Charter schools are public schools operated by private organizations, and state statute requires them to be nonsectarian.
Those issues faced a legal challenge with a proposed Catholic school, St. Isidore of Seville. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the proposal unconstitutional, and a divided U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 last year, allowing the state ruling to stand.
On Sept. 24, an Oklahoma City federal judge, in a legal challenge over Ben Gamla, upended the nonsectarian provision and blocked the state from excluding a charter school solely because of its religious character. In light of the judge’s order, the board opted to reconsider the school’s application at its October meeting.
“Welcome to the roller-coaster ride,” Chairman Brian Shellem, an Edmond businessman and gubernatorial appointee who voted for the school, said after the vote. “Unfortunately, that’s where we stand.”
Before the vote, the board met with legal counsel in executive session. When they reconvened, they didn’t discuss the school’s application.
Shellem and the board’s attorney, A.J. Ferate, said Monday’s rejection of Ben Gamla could place the board in contempt of court. But opponents of the school have highlighted weaknesses in the application that could justify denial, such as a lack of community support.
Ben Gamla founder Peter Deutsch recently told a Tulsa rabbi in an email that his goal is to enroll just 10 students in the school’s first year—far fewer than the 400-student goal in the school’s application.
The 10-student goal suggests the school isn’t financially or operationally viable and lacks community support, multiple national legal organizations, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Education Law Center, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Oklahoma Appleseed, wrote in a letter Thursday. The groups represent Oklahomans suing to block the Jewish charter school.
“Welcome to the roller-coaster ride.”
Brian Shellem, chairman, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board
Deutsch emailed Tulsa Rabbi Dan Kaiman to ask for his help recruiting a principal for Oklahoma’s Ben Gamla school, even though Kaiman is part of a group of Oklahomans suing to stop the school from opening.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond is also suing Ben Gamla, arguing the Statewide Charter School Board ignored flaws in the school’s application and focused its rejection solely on the religious aspects to create a cleaner path to federal court.
Deutsch, a former Democratic congressman, founded several brick-and-mortar charter schools in Florida under the Ben Gamla name. Those schools teach Hebrew but aren’t explicitly religious to comply with Florida law.
In Deutsch’s email, he wrote that the school is preparing to open in September 2027 and is part of a larger goal to expand free, Jewish religious charter schools nationwide.
“We envision that the vast majority of these future schools will be traditional brick-and-mortar schools, providing both an outstanding secular education and a serious Jewish education, without charging tuition,” Deutsch wrote.
Fewer than 9,000 Oklahoma residents are Jewish, about 0.21% of the state’s population. The Jewish Federations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa oppose the school.
Jennifer Palmer has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016 and covers education. Contact her at (405) 761-0093 or jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org. Follow her on Twitter @jpalmerOKC.
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