(3/6) With Trump's return for a second term, some of the religious Americans worry about him keeping his promise to return prayers to schools. Before his election, President Trump outlined his goals to reform public education. He said he would hit the ground running and bring back prayers to public schools. What does this mean for religious families?
Trump's presidency started on a high note
After being sworn in, President Trump has made some significant changes to public education as promised. He initially pledged to defund the Department of Education. Some news outlets even reported that he changed divorce laws to favor men, but this has been debunked. This means couples going through a divorce still need to get an Austin divorce law firm to handle the process.
Naturally, the wave of fake news spreading on the Internet has made some of his supporters worry about him, keeping his pledge now that he has been elected and sworn in. Now, prayer is not prohibited in any public school in the United States. However, it is not mandatory, as students can pray privately.
Trump supporters hope that a mandatory prayer session in the mornings can be implemented in schools across America. But the problem is these were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1962.
How prayer was deemed unconstitutional
In the mid-20th century, schools in the United States started the day with prayer and even read the Bible. The Catholics, however, did not support this and started the first pushback against prayers in the school. Their focus was on the text and not the prayer because of the fear that the children would be converted to Protestantism.
Eventually, the matter went to the Supreme Court and ended school prayer and the entire country. The first Supreme Court ruling stated that students were not obligated to recite a prayer in school, and the second ruled that schools should be neutral without opposing any religion.
Recently, educators and activists have tried to return Christianity to public schools. A few of these efforts have been successful so far. A Washington State football coach went to court for the right to pray in the court and won the case in the Supreme Court.
Another state now puts the Bible in all public school classrooms, and one state requires students to learn the 10 Commandments. However, the latter decision is still in court as it was halted by a judge.
After Donald Trump won at the polls, he led a prayer and worship session with all his staff and it was posted online. This gave hope to his religious supporters who want to bring back religion to public schools in America.
