Texas and Louisiana have passed similar laws requiring public schools to display the religious directives, and the issue is expected to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
As today’s Supreme Court leans right, there is an ongoing push to infuse conservative Christianity into taxpayer-funded education. Advocates of religious diversity and church-state separation are countering it.
A group of 33 parents, teachers, and faith leaders asked the state’s highest court to block the controversial new standards, which dictate what topics public schools must teach starting in the 2025-26 academic year.
While not definitive, the decision signals the justices’ inclination to see conservative religious parents succeed in their two-year legal challenge to the school policy that has dominated discussions at school boards and divided county residents.
The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches is a conservative network of churches most easily understood through three main parts: churches, schools, and media.
This issue of A Public Witness goes inside the first meeting of the White House Religious Liberty Commission this week to warn about their effort to turn religious freedom upside down.
Two other states, Louisiana and Arkansas, have similar laws — but Louisiana's is on hold after a federal judge found that it was “unconstitutional on its face.”
The case came to the court amid efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools.
Oklahoma’s new social studies standards for K-12 public school students, already infused with references to the Bible, were revised at the direction of state School Superintendent Ryan Walters.
Exploring the politics behind a new commission built on Christian privilege reveals competing understandings of religious liberty that have consequential implications for public schools.