April 2003

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When the U.S. Department of Education issued its four-page "Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools" on February 7, the national media hardly blinked. But who can blame them? After all, news editors probably recognized the document for what it was: a restating of long-standing principles reiterated time and again by all three branches of the federal government.

"Public schools should not be hostile to the religious rights of their students and their families," Secretary of Education Rod Paige wrote in a letter accompanying the guidelines to public elementary and secondary schools. "At the same time, school officials may not compel students to participate in prayer or other religious activities. Nor may teachers, school administrators, and other school employees, when acting in their official capacities as representatives of the state, encourage or discourage prayer, or participate in such activities with students."

The guidelines are strongly similar to those developed during the Clinton administration and repeatedly sent to all public schools in the country. In a remarkable demonstration of unity, everyone from the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Humanist Association to the National Association of Evangelicals had backed them in 1995. That coalition is fragmenting now that a Republican is in the White House.

"The Bush administration is clearly trying to push the envelope on behalf of prayer in public schools," said Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is threatening to sue over the guidelines. If Americans United sues, it will lose. These guidelines carefully restate current law and the Supreme Court's interpretations of it. ...