Americans United - Public Schools Week
Just in time for the start of “Public Schools Week” on Monday, I and other Americans United experts have fielded several media requests from reporters researching Christian Nationalist attacks on public education and church-state separation. When I arrived at AU seven years ago, these attacks, which were already underway although not to the same extreme, were largely an untold story. Today, the press is paying much closer attention.
One reporter wanted to know more about the Ten Commandments display bills proliferating in at least 16 states, inspired by Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate signed into law last summer. I like to point out that AU and our allies immediately filed a lawsuit to challenge that Louisiana law on behalf of nine families from Christian, Jewish, Unitarian and nonreligious backgrounds – and that a federal court has deemed it unconstitutional and blocked it from being enforced while our lawsuit proceeds.
Something that I cannot always talk about with specifics but you should know is how effective AU’s public policy team is. They have been working with allies on the ground, sometimes behind the scenes, to make sure legislators know these bills are unconstitutional and likely would result in costly legal battles for them and school districts in their states. Our efforts are paying off, even in “red” states: Ten Commandments display bills have failed in Mississippi, Montana, and North and South Dakota in recent weeks (an Oklahoma bill to display the Ten Commandments at the state capitol also died).
We’ve also been talking to reporters in Alabama about an egregious new bill aimed at amending the state constitution to require public schools to begin every school day with the recitation of a “prayer representative of Judeo-Christian values.” As I explained in an interview with an Alabama public radio reporter, it has been settled law for more than 60 years that it violates students’ religious freedom to force them to sit through government-mandated prayers.
AU is also fighting attempts at the state and federal levels to fund more private school voucher schemes that would divert public money to private, predominantly religious schools. We’re monitoring more than 150 voucher bills in the states and gearing up to fight attempts by Congress and the Trump administration to create, for the first time, federally funded, nationwide voucher programs. We knew this federal push was coming because it was called for in Project 2025.
The good news is AU’s messaging is breaking through. During the recent Senate confirmation hearing for Trump education secretary nominee Linda McMahon, several Senators highlighted her support for vouchers as problematic, incorporating information from AU’s letter urging Senators to oppose her confirmation. Sen. Bernie Sanders recently shared a video on social media about why people should oppose vouchers that uses many of AU’s talking points and even includes AU’s logo.
With your support, Americans United will continue to monitor these and many other bills attacking public education. We’re ready to defend students and families’ religious freedom. Because our children’s religious freedom depends on it, and so does the future of our democracy.
With hope and determination,
Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO