If all goes to plan, Tulsa Classical Academy, a charter school, will open its doors to kindergarten to 12th grade students in the fall of 2022.

Nathan Phelps, president of Classically Formed Inc., is spearheading the effort to launch this unique classical approach to publicly funded education.

Tulsa Classical Academy is not a private school and it is not a Christian School. As a publicly funded charter school, it will not charge tuition.

“Classical education is dedicated to the preservation of Western Culture, is rooted in piety, holds that truth is an objective and knowable reality, and aims at cultivating wisdom and virtue so that students become happy, flourishing, lifelong learners whose affections have been shaped to love those things that are true, good, and beautiful,” Phelps said.

Part of the reason for the school is to open up classical education to families who might find private tuition burdensome.

“We formed our non-profit- Classically Formed Inc. – in the summer of 2020,” he said. “We have five board members all from Northeastern Oklahoma.”

There are 24 Barney Charter School Initiative (BCSI) affiliated charter schools in 11 states but this will be the first one in Oklahoma.  BCSI is an outreach program of Hillsdale College that is “devoted to the revitalization of public education through the launch and support of classical K-12 charter schools.”

Hillsdale College is one of the most conservative colleges in America.

Hillsdale College, located in Michigan, doesn’t not accept federal funds and will not have a part in funding Tulsa Classical Academy.

“We signed our letter of intent with Hillsdale College in September of 2020,” Phelps said.

In February of 2020, Phelps and his group went to Bentonville, Arkansas (the closest BCSI-affiliated school to Tulsa) to see how they functioned.

“We were there on their lottery day and were surprised to discover that they had some 800 kids on their waiting list,” Phelps said. “We ran the numbers and realized that when scaled up for Tulsa we were looking at an addressable market of 3,200 students.”

The Tulsa school is already accepting applications for students who will be placed in a lottery sometime next year.

Anyone may apply but according the website, “The Oklahoma Charter law requires that we prioritize students from the district where the school is located (which is yet to be determined) and specifically students in that district who are attending schools that have been designated as in need of improvement. That being said, we have designed our enrollment plan to accommodate students from throughout the region.”

Tulsa Classical Academy got a Oklahoma Charter School Startup Grant in April and startup capital has been provided by the William S. and Ann Atherton Foundation and others.

“We received charter approval from Rose State College in February 2021 and signed our contract in March 2021,” Phelps said.

The school will participate in the national school lunch program with free and reduced-priced lunches.

The school will take special needs students. They plan to offer athletic programs as the need arises.

While the school does not yet have a campus, the board is exploring several potential sites plus the Oklahoma Legislature has passed bills that will help all charter schools obtain buildings.

Their phone number is 918-509-3676. Their website is www.tulsaclassical.org.