Prayer is back in schools
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, said her department’s new guidelines, which highlight “constitutionally protected prayer,” require state agencies to inform it when complaints are filed about limitations to the free exercise of religion. “Too many misinterpret a separation of church and state as an invitation for government to separate people from their faith,” DeVos said. “In reality, our Constitution doesn’t exist to protect us from religion; it exists to protect religion from government.” Daniel Mach, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said the Education Department's guidance about school prayer is very similar to language that has been in place since 2003 when issued by then-President George W. Bush. “Importantly, both the Bush guidance and the copycat document released today affirm a core constitutional protection: School officials are prohibited from imposing their faith on students,” Mach said. “The questi...