'Dangerous sea change': Critics warn Supreme Court about inserting religion into schools
Two new court cases will test the limits of the First Amendment as the Supreme Court decides just how far religion can permeate public schools.
At issue are two cases the court recently agreed to hear: in the first, the six Republican appointees and three Democratic appointees will consider whether to permit the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school in Oklahoma; and in the second, the court will hear an appeal from parents in Maryland who want the right to keep their children from reading books having to do with LGBTQ subjects.
The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the court's decision to take the Oklahoma case, saying in a statement: “The law is clear: Charter schools are public schools and must be secular and open to all students." The statement continued, "Oklahoma taxpayers...should not be forced to fund a religious public school that plans to discriminate against students and staff and indoctrinate students into one religion. Converting public schools into Sunday schools would be a dangerous sea change for our democracy.”...