Legislative

The Alabama legislature discussed two harmful bills yesterday, both of which would result in government promotion of religion in Alabama public schools

Of course, students already have to the right to engage in voluntary, student initiated prayer and religious expression in public schools, making these bills unnecessary. The bills are also harmful because they push for government sponsored and promoted prayer in the public school classrooms, which is not only unconstitutional, but would lead to many students feeling uncomfortable and excluded because of their beliefs. Read more

January was a busy month in state legislatures. From coast to coast, AU has already responded to a wide array of bills that hit on topics such as religious discrimination, marriage inequality, school vouchers, and religion in public schools.

Anti-Sharia Bill in the Northwest Read more

Private school vouchers are being pushed by short-sighted leaders all around the country. About 20 states currently have some sort of private school voucher program and many state leaders intend to try to expand and create even more next year, despite the even further diminishing public support of vouchers. Read more

The Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors of the Michigan House of Representatives held a hearing yesterday on HB 4927 and 4928. Read more

Yesterday House Bill 522, which prohibits the application of “foreign laws” in North Carolina, became law. Although that may sound harmless on its face, the bill is actually motivated by anti-Muslim animus and a manufactured fear that Sharia law is being implemented in the U.S. Read more

This week, the 45^th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools was released. Although it hit on several hot education topics, such as the Common Core State Standards and Teacher Evaluation, one of the poll’s most notable results was the public’s growing disapproval of private school vouchers. Read more

On Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) hosted an event called “Success for Our Children: A Roundtable Forum on School Choice.”

The forum included three one-sided panels in favor of so-called “school choice.” Although the discussion did include a lot of talk about charter schools, the senators and panelists also strongly pushed private school vouchers. Read more

Reproductive justice is a hot button issue, and while important in its own right, sometimes it overshadows other important religious liberty concerns that also exist in a state bill. This happened recently in both North Carolina and Ohio. Read more

Private school vouchers have been popping up on both the federal and state level. Voucher programs and tuition tax credit programs use taxpayer money to send students to private and religious schools, violating our country’s separation of church and state. These programs also lack accountability, regulation, and civil rights protections that would normally be present in public schools.

Federal Level Read more

On Wednesday, June 26^th, Americans United, along with 31 other members of the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination (CARD) sent a letter to Melissa Rogers, the new Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The letter outlines CARD’s policy priorities and positions regarding partnerships between the government and faith-based organizations, including our opposition to federally funded hiring discrimination. CARD is looking forward to working with Ms. Read more