Florida should fund religious charter schools, AG Uthmeier says

The big story: As Good Friday and Easter Sunday approached, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced he will not enforce any state law that prohibits religious schools from accessing public funds.

In an 11-page written opinion, Uthmeier laid out his argument why any laws preventing religious individuals or organizations from having the same benefits as anyone else are unconstitutional.

“Many have tried to force a modern secular gloss on the First Amendment,” Uthmeier said in a video he circulated on X. “But that reality cannot be squared with Christianity’s overwhelming influence at the founding.”

For one example, he pointed to the state’s Effective Access to Student Education grant, saying it is limited to students who attend a secular college or university. He also referred to the state’s charter school system, which statute states must be nonsectarian.

“This blanket exclusion of all religious entities also violates the First Amendment,” Uthmeier wrote.

His declaration came amid a national debate, started in Oklahoma, over whether religious groups may operate publicly funded charter schools that teach religious dogma. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2025 rejected a Catholic virtual school from becoming the nation’s first religious charter school.

A South Florida-based Jewish school has now taken up the fight in Oklahoma. Some observers have suggested that Uthmeier is serving up a Florida centered case that could land in the Supreme Court without the possibility of Justice Amy Coney Barrett needing to recuse herself, as she did in the initial Oklahoma decision.

The announcement also came weeks after education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas unveiled a new email hotline for parents to file complaints if they feel public schools have violated their children’s religious rights. The Freedom From Religion Foundation later warned that the system offers a one-sided protection of constitutional freedoms.

“The department’s new reporting mechanism focuses exclusively on alleged restrictions of religious expression, without any parallel mechanism to address violations of the Establishment Clause,” foundation counsel Chris Line wrote.

Uthmeier said the government cannot deny public benefit to someone simply because they are religious, and he took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the right to practice religious beliefs without government interference.

He did not mention a bill recently passed by the Legislature that could prevent Islamic schools from receiving state voucher funding. Gov. Ron DeSantis has not said anything about Uthmeier’s unilateral decision to stop enforcing certain state laws, unlike when he removed Andrew Warren as Hillsborough County’s state attorney in 2022, saying state attorneys are not supposed to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on personal agendas.

Florida should fund religious charter schools, AG Uthmeier says

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