By your mention, I thought you knew something of their argument. I’ve heard plenty of arguments of how mandatory school prayer is against the constitution, but I’ve never heard anyone on the right feel good about this. Just hoped you could shed light on it.

Setting aside the question of whether it’s a good idea to have mandatory education (or what is “public” about an education system which is often actively hostile towards the parents), the US constitution seems pretty clear on the role of religion in public institutions. Students are free to pray and hold religious services, but the school cannot favour one over others. We can debate whether public schools should exist, and we can certainly debate whether the constitution as it stands is a good one, but given those premises, yeah, I think the conclusion is clear.

My understanding is that the political right wants to integrate religion into schools and so have been undermining the constitution (again, leaving aside the question of whether this is good or bad). That’s why I can’t see why the right should cheer. They may have a case in other areas, but I just don’t see this one.

For my part, I’d rather attack the entire idea of “government”-run mandatory schools (mandatory in terms of tribute, er, funding if not in terms of attendance) than attack specific policies in the schools (except as precursor to attacking the entire idea of “government”-run mandatory schools).

If we accept the premise that “government” has a moral obligation to forcibly take money from everybody, willing or not, to “educate” children, and if we accept the premise that the U.S. Constitution has placed limits on the “governments” of the several states as to policies which may appear to be a statement of “governmental preference” given to any specific religion or religious set of practices, there’s a sufficient framework for debate, but I think those premises pretty much lead to a foregone conclusion that prayer in schools should be private and outside of any official capacity, i.e. student-lead. As mentioned, I have problems with those premises …