Every world religion is represented here in large numbers, and there are literally thousands of sects and subgroups. Conservative Christians are more politically active than ever, yet one of the fastest growing groups is those who claim no religious affiliation. Unless Americans can live together with these deep differences, our public education system will struggle to survive. Having said that, I am pleased to report that significant progress has been made in how religion is treated in the nation's public schools. Certainly, problems of compliance remain on both ends of the spectrum.
Some districts continue to promote religion while others persist in discriminating against it.
But overall, the Equal Access Act, First Amendment and related laws are being implemented and adhered to in a manner that surpasses that of any previous period in our history. In the past, public schools tended to follow one of two paradigms, both of which failed. The first, the sacred public school, as Dr. Charles Haynes and I like to call it, had a distinctly Protestant tone. Communities split over which prayers would be offered and which version of the Bible would be read. The reason we have a system of Catholic schools today is because the Protestant public schools were simply intolerable for devout Roman Catholics.