When Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz attended the 2023 Turning Point USA convention, he gave the Christian nationalists in attendance a preview of the National Prayer in School Act, a bill he introduced into the House of Representatives shortly after the convention. His speech electrified the crowd: “The beautiful new Supreme Court that President Trump gave us just might uphold a constitutional law based on the values that the country was built on,” he began.
Gaetz later became more explicit, posting a speech on Instagram in support of the legislation: “Our country’s educational policy forbids students and faculty from praying while endlessly promoting degenerate LGBT and anti-white propaganda,” he said. “My legislation unlocks religious freedom.” As written, the Act would erode church-state separation, giving students, faculty and staff the right to pray on school grounds — something that has been barred for more than 50 years.
The bill is currently in the House Judiciary Committee. While its chances of passage are considered slim by policy watchers on both sides of the aisle — multiple sources told Truthout that they doubt that it will get out of Committee — state legislatures throughout the country are eroding the separation of church and state, zeroing in on public education and restoring “voluntary” school prayer; permitting (and in some places, requiring) the posting of “In God We Trust” in classrooms; allowing unlicensed chaplains to counsel K-12 students; authorizing release time so that students can attend religious instruction during class time; and providing vouchers of up to $16,000 per student per year to subsidize tuition at private, religious academies.
Meanwhile, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an attempt by the Catholic Archdiocese to acquire state funding to open the nation’s first government-financed religious charter program was recently rebuffed by the state’s highest court. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was set to open in the fall of 2024; according to the school’s promotional materials it intended to teach a curriculum “steeped in the richness of Catholic intellectual tradition.”
Oklahoma education authorities had approved St. Isidore’s bid to start the school last summer, but opponents appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court where judges were asked to consider whether sanctioning the use of tax dollars to open a wholly online and explicitly religious K-12 program violated the First Amendment.
Many were outraged by the plan. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools joined the ACLU and a slew of human rights groups and public school supporters to challenge the proposed program’s overreach into secular society.
For the moment, they’ve won.
“The right’s attempts to get religion into public schools have increased and we are seeing more and more intrusions,” Allison Gill, vice president of legal and policy at American Atheists, Inc., told Truthout. “Public education is one of America’s most important cultural achievements and public schools are a cultural landmark. Our democracy depends on robust public programs.”
According to Gill, the many attacks on public schooling are meant to dismantle public education, a longstanding goal of conservative individuals like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos whose American Federation for Children has funneled millions of dollars to candidates and incumbents who support an anti-public education agenda. Groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, First Liberty Institute, Heritage Foundation and Moms for........