Across the country, public schools are going back into session. They’re doing so amid a rising tide of Christian Nationalism and proliferating voucher plans that present an existential threat to the very idea of public education.
When Americans United was founded in 1947, the organization’s leaders made it clear that defending a secular system of public education that welcomes all children would be a key platform plank. Indeed, AU’s founders considered public education essential to the nation’s survival. “Next to the Constitution itself, our public school system has been our strongest bulwark against the development of religious intolerance in our political life,” they wrote in AU’s founding manifesto.
Early AU leaders also appealed to public school teachers, calling on members of that “noble profession” to support church-state separation because they, more than other Americans, understood why public education must not merely survive but thrive.
Seventy-eight years have passed, but Americans United’s support for a taxpayer-funded system of secular public education has never wavered. We’re working hard to keep our school open to all children, no matter their religious or non-religious views. A good example is the ongoing litigation AU and its allies are spearheading in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas to stop public schools from posting copies of the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.
In addition, AU’s “Know Your Rights” publications are designed to help students, parents and public school staff members understand what public schools can and cannot do when it comes to religion. (If you believe your public school is doing something it shouldn’t, you can alert Americans United here.)
Nearly 80 years ago, Americans United vowed to defend a public school system that serves all Americans, schools where young people put aside their differences and learn a host of secular subjects and where the role of religion, when it’s taught in classes like history, art appreciation and so on, is done in an objective, even-handed manner.
We’re proud to have kept that vow. And in these challenging times, we know there’s much more work to be done. With your help, we’ll continue to buttress public education, making sure that it remains a strong “bulwark against the development of religious intolerance” in American life.
