In Oklahoma, the state superintendent is requiring that public schools incorporate the Bible in numerous classes. In Texas, the proposed reading and language-arts curriculum is infused with biblical lessons. And Louisiana passed a law in June requiring that every public classroom display the Ten Commandments.
These actions — and the immediate reactions that consider them to be violations of the separation of church and state and seek to block them — are stark reminders that public schools cannot treat all people equally. No school can be simultaneously Christian, Hindu, secular, and so on. If public schools include devotional religion, they violate the Constitution’s establishment clause and render nonadherents second-class citizens. If they are not religious, they establish secularism, rendering religious families second-class and violating equality under the law.
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