Christian or Woke School? On the Federal Court Ruling on a Girls’ Secondary School

mw. On 17 January 2025, the Federal Court announced its view of a constitutionally compliant school – it is hard to imagine anything more absurd. According to the said ruling, the St. Katharina Girls’ Secondary School (Kathi) in Wil, SG, violates the “requirement for confessional neutrality of public schools.” As stated by Switzerland’s highest court, “The Kathi is clearly Christian, or rather, Catholic oriented. Significant religious elements are consciously integrated into daily school life.” Furthermore, it is “incompatible with the principle of equal treatment that access to Kathi is only open to girls.”
  Look how far we’ve come! Does a school violate our constitution just because it embodies Christian values? Apparently, this aligns more with some parents’ preferences compared to their children having their minds confused by wokeness, gender, and other contemporary ideological trends in schools. By the way, the school accepts students from all denominations and religions and promotes mutual respect for the religions of others. Moreover, attendance at Kathi is voluntary, as pointed out by one of the federal judges: Religious neutrality is only breached if a child is compelled by the state to attend a religious school. And why should it not be constitutional for the school to be exclusive to girls? Other secondary schools are free to compete with Kathi by adopting similarly high academic, artistic, and ethical standards.
  With this ruling, the Federal Court also disregards the federal constitutional order: According to Article 62 Paragraph 1 of the Federal Constitution, school sovereignty lies with the cantons. The Wil city parliament, after lengthy and arduous deliberation, had democratically decided to fund Kathi from the municipal budget, and the administrative court of the canton of St. Gallen dismissed a complaint against it. Although the Federal Court notes, “The neutrality requirement is not absolute. Differing cantonal weightings can be permissible,” it disregards the federative diversity of the Swiss school system, which is worrying.
  Given the fact that 20 per cent of our school leavers neither can read, write, nor count adequately, we should be grateful for a school where value education and academic performance are paramount, and whose diverse artistic offerings foster the creativity, willingness to perform, and social skills of young people (4 pillars: value school, performance school, day school, artistic school).
  Thankfully, there is some refreshing protest from the media. Philipp Gut in Weltwoche states, “Instead of promoting freedom and diversity, the high judges pose as advocates for an educational uniformity. Oh, holy simplicity!” Katharina Fontana in the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” mentions, “Instead of aiming to raise standards in public schools, the better competition is simply being destroyed. Egalitarianism takes precedence over all else, even if it lowers the level. The decision of the Second Public Law decision was made by three votes to two. This ruling has little to do with justice in its narrow sense but everything to do with the personal worldview of the judges.”
  It is hoped that Kathi, as a private school, finds ways to continue accepting students whose parents cannot afford tuition fees – as many students have already enrolled for the next school year. •

Sources: Federal Court press release. Judgement of January 17, 2025 (2C_405/2022);
Gut, Philipp. “Irrwege der Gleichstellung”  (“The wrong path to equality”) in: Weltwoche No. 4/25 of 23 January 2025;
Fontana, Katharina. “Aus für die Schule St. Katharina: Ideologie bringt eine erfolgreiche Mädchenschule zu Fall.” (“This is the End for the St. Katharina School: Ideology Brings Down the Successful Girls’ School”) in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of 20 January 2025;
https://www.kathi.ch/4-saeulen/