Inside the growing push for more religion in public schools
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
The Supreme Court is weighing an Oklahoma case on whether to allow public funding of religious charter schools. It's just one part of a new wave of initiatives by Christian groups to put more religion into public education.
Why it matters: A movement driven mostly by Republican-led states also is pushing to expand education voucher programs, require Bibles and the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and allow students to skip school for religious instruction.
- The movement — fueled by a loose coalition of white evangelicals, conservative Catholics and some Black and Latino Protestant groups — seeks to chip away at the nation's long-held doctrine separating church and state.
Driving the news: Evangelicals have been seeking to blur the line between public and religious schools for two decades, but those efforts have accelerated recently.
- Like the Oklahoma case, some of the challenges are arising with the conservative-led Supreme Court and a supportive President Trump in mind. Other initiatives have gained ground in legislatures across the country.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this month signed legislation creating a $1 billion program that gives families state money for private school tuition, a plan that some supporters say could be a boon to religious schools.
- The voucher program will be one of the largest in the country and joins 15 other states with similar plans, according to EdChoice, an education choice group.
- Critics say voucher programs hurt public schools — and low-income families in particular — by shifting taxpayer money from those schools to many families who already can afford to send their kids to private schools.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced legislation this year to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, per Stateline.
- Ohio and Indiana lawmakers recently passed bills that say students must be allowed to leave class for private religious instruction during the school day.
- Oklahoma's state school superintendent last year ordered that the Bible be incorporated into the state's public school curriculum — a directive later challenged in court by a group of parents, teachers and ministers.
- And Texas' education board voted last year to allow Bible-based teachings in elementary schools under an optional new curriculum.
Catch up quick: Last month the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the Oklahoma Virtual Charter School Board's approval of an online school that would evangelize Catholicism.
- Oklahoma's Supreme Court ruled last year that the state board's approval of what would be the nation's first publicly funded religious school was unconstitutional.
- The school's supporters are hoping for a reversal by the high court, noting that some of its recent decisions have suggested the justices are open to public funds going to religious schools.
What they're saying: "The [U.S. Constitution's] Establishment Clause is at the very core of our nation's founding, reflecting the unambiguous mandate to keep government from supporting the establishment of religion," Richard Conn, general counsel for the Center for Inquiry, said in a statement.
- Conn said the Supreme Court should reject any "attempt to tear down the high wall separating government and religion."
- Supporters of injecting more religious instruction into public schools argue that U.S. history is intertwined with religion. Some claim that religious education can help improve students' behavior and discipline.
Between the lines: The debates over religion come as some GOP-led states also have passed laws limiting discussions of racism, Black history, diversity and LGBTQ issues in public schools.
- They're also unfolding as surveys indicate increasing numbers of Americans are identifying as non-religious — and their schools are more racially and religiously diverse than ever.
