Prayer or Funding? What is our education priority?

From the BRADENTON HERALD EDITORIAL staff

School prayer bill on shaky constitutional ground. Measure puts onus on school boards to adopt plan

Legislators are again busy laying the groundwork for divisive battles over public school prayer with a bill that would allow school boards to approve voluntary, student-led prayer in secondary schools. This comes only a few days into a session where legislative leaders vowed to keep the focus on redistricting maps and a balanced budget, but social issues have a way of surfacing whenever Florida’s Legislature convenes.

While the measure sounds somewhat restrained, this sets up school boards as political battlegrounds for yet more heated debates with constituents -- and potentially costly constitutional litigation should districts adopt resolutions “allowing prayers of invocation and benediction at secondary school events,” as Senate Bill 98 states. Taxpayers would get stuck with the bills.

Worse, the “voluntary” aspect of the bill ignores the realities in public schools -- namely, peer pressure, bullying and exclusion. Student government would be allowed discretion on the content of prayers conducted by volunteers. With the majority of Americans embracing Christianity, other students of faith and atheists would be marginalized, even ostracized, should only Christian prayers receive student blessings.

The question of how much influence school administrators, teachers and parents will bring to bear on “voluntary” student prayers raises another concern. The bill does bar school personnel from taking part in prayer, but behind-the-scenes machinations are entirely possible.

When SB 98 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, it enjoyed bipartisan support in a 5-1 vote with a lone Democrat in opposition, Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa. Her district includes a portion of northern Manatee County. The bill already passed the Senate Education Committee, with a companion bill in the House, HB 317, now in the chamber’s Education Committee.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, maintains the measure stands on firm constitutional ground because of its voluntary nature -- an assertion roundly rejected by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Anti-Defamation League. Florida’s ACLU makes a valid point by noting, “Religious expression is an individual liberty and shouldn’t be put to a vote like a Prom King or Homecoming Court.”

Such a state law would have to pass constitutional muster at some point -- in a costly court case, as history shows. In 2009 consent decree as a result of a court challenge, northwest Florida’s Santa Rosa County school district agreed to ban school officials from promoting or participating in prayers during school events.

Students can pray in public schools in a private, voluntary and nondisruptive basis, but organized prayer in classrooms or at school-sponsored events is unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court established those precedents in rulings over the past five decades, citing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. That includes nondenominational prayers. The Florida legislation attempts to skirt those rulings but cannot escape the bans on voluntary student participation and organized prayer at school events.

There are a number of good arguments in favor of school prayer, namely about respect for moral values, religious beliefs and the nation’s spiritual heritage. But unless the Legislature or a school district is prepared to pursue a court case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court with the hope that justices overturn established precedent and restore public school prayer, lawmakers should focus on the major issues at hand -- namely, the state budget, the economy and redistricting.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/01/20/3805576/school-prayer-bill-on-shaky-constitutional.html#storylink=cpy