Don't compel public schools to allow religious instruction

Public schools shouldn't be forced to dismiss students in the middle of the school day for religious instruction. Yet that is exactly what a bill working its way through the Ohio General Assembly would do. Under existing Ohio law, school districts "may" allow parents to pull their kids out of class to attend religious training. The bill would change "may" to "shall." Changing one word therefore would compromise school boards' power to decide how best to educate the students in their care. For example, the change would reverse Vermilion Schools' decision last year to reject a petition to allow LifeWise Academy, a Hilliard, Ohio-based Christian group, to pull its students for religious instruction. Parents have the right to raise their children in the faith of their choosing, but there are plenty of other opportunities for kids to receive religious instruction, including Sunday school, clubs and after-school programs. For those parents who want religion to be part of the school day, there are many private religious schools for them to choose from. Thanks to Ohio's expansion of school vouchers, private schools are easily accessible and affordable in the Buckeye State. Moreover, forcing public schools to allow students to receive religious training during the school day would further erode the wall between church and state. (That wall has been under assault of late, including a new requirement that every school classroom in Louisiana display the Ten Commandments, something the U.S. Supreme Court has rightly ruled unconstitutional.) Accommodating religious training might not directly cost schools money, but districts do have to expend resources on scheduling and getting students out the door. Besides, we are concerned about what students will miss during the school day while they're off receiving religious training. LifeWise has said it doesn't pull its students from core classes, instead doing so during free periods, lunch and electives. Core classes, such as math and science, as well as electives, such as art and music, are important for students to become productive and well-rounded members of society when they graduate. State Rep. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, who chairs the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, which is reviewing the bill, expressed similar reservations in a story we published Wednesday. "One of the things I'm certainly concerned about is something we've been looking at quite a bit since the pandemic: absenteeism," she said. "We're having chronic absenteeism in all of our school systems, how much do we allow kids to miss school? This (religious release) is like 50 minutes a week." Manning, a former teacher who said she was keeping an open mind on the legislation, also wondered about who was working for LifeWise and how those people were being vetted. That concern stemmed from revelations that Renee Beck, a former teacher hired to run the LifeWise program for Firelands Schools, had been fired from a previous job for sending "sexual and explicit" messages to students in 2018. LifeWise CEO Joel Penton said that the nonprofit last week fired Beck, who wasn't charged criminally, because she failed to disclose the issue. It didn't come up during her background check, he said. LifeWise has programs in more than a dozen states and is spreading into districts across Ohio, including Black River Schools. The group is trying to launch programs in other Lorain County districts as well, including Elyria, Lorain and Sheffield-Sheffield Lake. Given such efforts, we are concerned that LifeWise isn't being as transparent as it should be. Our worry stems, in part, from LifeWise's removal of people, including Chronicle-Telegram reporters, from its online meetings. Other people also have been removed from meetings because of prior online comments deemed critical of LifeWise. Penton told one of our reporters that LifeWise was worried that critics would disrupt the meetings. While attendees shouldn't be disruptive, LifeWise should be willing to answer questions, even critical ones, from the public in the communities in which it hopes to operate. One of the sponsors of the Ohio bill, state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, argued in April that districts that declined to allow religious instruction during the school day were in the wrong. "Regardless of their intentions," he said, "their failure to implement a sound policy in this matter results in a denial of both the students' and parents' constitutional right to the free exercise of religion." No one is denying families the right to practice their religion. Public schools have long had the option to allow religious training during the school day thanks to a Supreme Court case decided in 1952. A 6-3 majority of the court ruled that allowing students to leave school for religious learning didn't violate the Constitution's establishment clause. However, there was nothing in the court's decision that required public schools to give students time off during the day to learn about the Bible, the Koran, the Torah or any other religious text. That's how it should stay in Ohio.