Issue of Prayer in American Public Schools

With the campaign and eventual election of Ronald Reagan as

President of the United States in 1980, America has been subjected to a backlash from the "New Religious Right" over legal and judicial actions taken by the U.S. Supreme Court, beginning in the early 1960's. Cries such as "Why can't children pray in school?," or "Isn't creationism just as scientific as evolution and shouldn't it be taught in public schools?," have been raised (Doerr 48). To these Christian fundamentalists as well as many concerned citizens and education leaders, public schools have become totally devoid of any religion. Many question if this is a good thing, and if not, what price has been paid in trying to protect the individual's rights under the Constitution's First Amendment.

Religion's place in America's public education has been tenuous since the beginning back in Massachusetts in the mid-seventeenth century (Doerr 48). Initially, religion

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t, these powerful religious leaders attempted to pressure Congress into passing a new amendment to allow group prayer in the classroom, but were defeated in Congress thanks to the efforts of civil libertarians and mainstream religious leaders. In 1971, a prayer amendment was presented on the floor of Congress but was defeated largely due to Rep. Robert Drinan, a Catholic priest from Massachusetts. Unwilling to give up, advocates continue to push for a change by citing public opinion polls which seen to show strong support for prayer in schools. However, it appears that those polled are told that students can not pray at all in school which is false and thus skews the polls' results (Doerr 49). Further, in its school prayer rulings, the Supreme Court said that schools could and should offer objective instruction about religion. Many believed, nevertheless, that by the 1980's "God had been taken out of the schools." President Reagan's Education Secretary, William J. Bennett, was forced to face this concern during a lecture on "Religious Belief and the Constitutional Order," and he said it was the intention of the founding fathers that "complete neutrality between particular religious beliefs can and should coexist with publi
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Approximate Word count = 1438
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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