Can charter schools be religious? If so, what does that mean for public education?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case that could transform public education in the Unites States.
57% : Under both the state and federal laws, charter schools are defined as public schools.
55% : For the first time, the justices are being asked to decide whether overtly religious schools may be publicly funded charter schools.
55% : Opposing St. Isidore is the Republican Attorney General of Oklahoma, Gentner Drummond, who argues: "Religious liberty is really the freedom to worship.
54% : " The Oklahoma Supreme Court said that would put the school directly at odds with a series of landmark Supreme Court decisions that bar religious prayer and instruction in public education.
53% : " The drafters of the federal and state constitutions, he says, "wisely understood how best to protect religious freedom by preventing the state from sponsoring any religion at all." St. Isidore and its lawyer have a different view.
53% : " In other words, it won't be just Christian groups that want public funding for their charter schools.
50% : And most importantly for Wednesday's case, charter schools by law must be non-sectarian.
48% : The state has maintained that it will accept all comers, he observes, but "its own handbook is very clear that students must subscribe to the school's... requirements, and those include not only respecting the Catholic faith as truth but in some instances, actually attending Mass." Drummond adds that if the Catholic Church, in the garb of charter schools, can get millions of dollars in public funding for their overtly religious mission, there will be many unintended consequences.
45% : The school had the backing of the state school superintendent, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that allowing religious schools to become charter schools would violate both the state and federal constitutions.

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