A school board in Tennessee has approved a proposal to launch a Christian charter school, moving forward despite recent legal challenges surrounding similar efforts in other states.
During a special meeting on April 28, the Jackson-Madison County School Board unanimously approved four charter school applications, including one submitted by Union Academy.
Superintendent Marlon King of the Jackson-Madison County School System said the idea for the charter school originated from discussions with leadership at Union University, a private Christian institution in Jackson, Tennessee.
According to King, the university’s president responded enthusiastically to the proposal, saying his “team jumped all over this.”
Planning documents submitted to the Tennessee State Board of Education describe Union Academy as a “faith-based Christian college preparatory” school that will initially serve 206 students from kindergarten through fifth grade in the 2027–28 academic year.
The school intends to expand steadily, reaching 326 students from kindergarten through ninth grade by its fifth year, and ultimately serving 386 students from kindergarten through 12th grade at full capacity.
Following the board’s decision, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Mark Lippelmann issued a statement supporting the move.
“Tennessee parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer. The Jackson-Madison County School System Board was right to approve Union Academy’s request to operate as a charter school and should be commended for refusing to engage in unconstitutional discrimination based on the school’s religious character,” he said.
He added, “Alliance Defending Freedom wholeheartedly supports Union Academy in its endeavor to become the nation’s first religious charter school, opening up educational options and freedom for more Tennessee families.”
The Tennessee initiative follows a similar but unsuccessful effort in Oklahoma to establish a publicly funded religious charter school.
In that case, the state initially approved St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in 2023, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the following year that taxpayer funding for a faith-based charter school violated both the state constitution and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld that decision in a 4-4 ruling.
More recently, Oklahoma authorities rejected a proposal to create a publicly funded Jewish charter school, prompting a legal challenge alleging that the denial violated constitutional protections for religious freedom.
