Prayer in Schools in IL?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:31 pm
So Illinois passed a "mandatory moment of silence to encourage prayer" law a couple years ago. One of the few good things ex-Gov Hair did was veto it, but it was overridden.
Our local "separation of church and state" zealot (does every state have these? I hope so) sued and got it overturned. The state's appealing.
Original sponsor offers another bill with the "to encourage prayer" parts taken out, making it just a moment of silence bill. Zealot is totally fine with this and offers to drop suit.
Education committee is totally surprised by this. Decides to table vote on without-prayer and wait to see what happens in the courts on appeal.
If this was just about the value of a moment of silence in the teaching day in our schools, it'd be well on its way to becoming law. But instead we're spending taxpayer money fighting a lawsuit everyone knows we're not going to win.
Well, we'll win in the sense of ending up with what's best for the state. But the state gov't won't get what it wants in this case.
Our local "separation of church and state" zealot (does every state have these? I hope so) sued and got it overturned. The state's appealing.
Original sponsor offers another bill with the "to encourage prayer" parts taken out, making it just a moment of silence bill. Zealot is totally fine with this and offers to drop suit.
Education committee is totally surprised by this. Decides to table vote on without-prayer and wait to see what happens in the courts on appeal.
If this was just about the value of a moment of silence in the teaching day in our schools, it'd be well on its way to becoming law. But instead we're spending taxpayer money fighting a lawsuit everyone knows we're not going to win.
Well, we'll win in the sense of ending up with what's best for the state. But the state gov't won't get what it wants in this case.