Religious Children, Secular Schools

The growth of government multiplies its contacts with citizens and increases the risk that government action will impair individual liberty, including the freedom of religion guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution.\u27 As religious minorities grow more assertive, the likelihood also increases that they will not submit meekly to burdens on their religion. Tension between government and religious groups is now erupting as fundamentalist Christian parents complain that public schools teach their children doctrine hostile to their religious beliefs. The parents\u27 demands for accommodation have provoked furious replies that accommodation is not mandated but forbidden by the Constitution. This Article examines the constitutional claims of religious parents and children offended by public education3 and the legal and policy issues that arise in the effort to accommodate them. The Article also introduces a discussion of the problems of reconciling religious freedom with the demands of the welfare state. The analysis begins by describing the activities in public schools that offend religious people, especially fundamentalists. After discussing the history of the Constitution\u27s religion clauses, the Article considers religionists\u27 claims under the establishment, free exercise, free speech and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. The Article concludes by discussing remedies to accommodate the free exercise rights of religious school children