Separation of church and state is a principle drilled into our country; while not a law, it isn’t something that should be discarded.
In December, the New Albany Floyd County School Board voted unanimously that students be allowed to leave for up to an hour a day twice a week to go to a bible education provided by LifeWise.
Not only does it take away vital instructional time, but it also blurs the separation of church and state in our community. This isn’t something that should be allowed at a public school, especially with all the ways this new policy can be abused and negatively impact an essential part of a child’s life.
One hour twice a week may not seem like much, but in a six-hour school day, it builds quickly. One hour is about 17% of the school day; two hours a week turns into missing eight hours a month, and missing 72 hours of the school year (about 34%). So even without missing a single day outside of this bible study, students wouldn’t even have 70% attendance.
That’s a lot of numbers, but it basically sums up to students participating in this bible study program having below average attendance automatically, since the average attendance from PreK to 12th grade is 93.45%, according to SchoolStatus. Although the board stated that students would be taken out of electives instead of their core classes, especially for younger kids, an art class or PE is a form of self-expression and a place to grow that is essential to their development. Taking away these classes and putting a religious class in place can be damaging.
This program also fails to consider the needs of other religions. This program is specific to LifeWise, which practices Christianity. Other students who wish to take advantage of the hour of school time are out of luck if they fall under any other religion, like Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. The lack of inclusivity when it comes to religions for this program makes it harmful and allows the school system to push a religious agenda that shouldn’t be happening. Religious exclusion and discrimination have no place in a country that was built on the idea of religious freedoms.
As we know, students will also try to take advantage of a program like this. Although not all students, there are many who would attempt to turn this program into an opportunity to skip school. There will always be people out there who will take advantage of resources like this bible study. We can already see this happening in schools that have already implemented this program. According to the Christian Daily, about 100,000 students across schools claim to be enrolled in a program with LifeWise, while there are only 44,438 students documented. If we, as a school system, are going to take away many other good resources from the better students because they were misused, then this should be no exception. This program could be taken advantage of in more ways than just missing school. Students could use this to invade religious spaces, and adults could use this program to get closer to children by getting hired at LifeWise. While thinking positively is great, we must consider the negatives, especially when they may outweigh the positives of this program.
And what are those positives? Students get to practice Christianity without missing after-school activities or sacrificing any playtime after school, at the expense of their schooling. Religion is important, yes; however, it should never take away from the development of a child. If the importance of after-school activities justifies taking them out of school, then religion can be left for another time. Families up until this point have had little to no problem practicing and exploring their religion outside of school hours, making this change seem even more unreasonable. Practicing a religion before or after school isn’t an issue; for example, NAHS’s FCA program meets before school every Friday without impeding on students’ academics. These options are a much better alternative for those students wishing to practice their religion without missing out on important instructional time.
