Does religion hold too much or too little sway over US schools? What poll finds
As the decades-long debate over the role of religion in public school education continues to spark legislation and legal challenges in the United States, a new poll reveals the nuanced views held among the general public.
Americans are largely split on what they think about religion's influence on public school curriculum, with 32% saying they think religion has too much influence and 38% saying it has too little influence, according to an AP-NORC poll published June 26.
Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they thought religion had 'about the right amount of influence' in public school education.
The survey of 1,158 U.S. adults was taken June 5-9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
White evangelical Christians and Catholics were more likely to say religion has too little influence on what children are taught in public schools, and those with no religious affiliation were more likely to say it has too much influence, according to the poll.
Protestants were split on their views about how much sway religion has on public school curriculum, the poll found.
Twenty-four percent of white mainline Protestants and 34% of nonwhite Protestants said religion had too much influence compared with 32% and 43% who said it was too little, according to the poll.
Democrats, 47%, were also more likely to say religion has too much influence on public school education than Republicans, 15%, per the poll.
Religion's role in education
In 2025 so far, SCOTUS has heard arguments in three cases considering religion's role in education, including whether or not Oklahoma could use government funds to establish what could have been the nation's first religious charter school and if parents in Maryland could opt their kids out of lessons involving LGBTQ+ themes.
When asked similar questions to those involved in the federal cases, the American public again proved to be mostly split, researchers said.
Thirty-five percent of respondents favored tax-funded vouchers that would help parents pay for their kids' tuition at private or religious schools of their choice while 38% said they opposed the vouchers, according to the poll. Twenty-five percent of adults did not have a firm opinion.
On the question of allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools, 23% of Americans said they were in favor, compared with 43% who said they were not in favor, the poll found. Thirty-three percent of respondents said they were neither in favor or in opposition, researchers said.
The poll also asked if public schools should be required to give parents a list of books accessible to students. A majority of respondents, 51%, said they were in favor, per the poll.
Prayer in schools
A majority of Americans said religious chaplains should be allowed to provide support services in public schools, but said teachers leading classes in prayer and a mandatory period for private prayer and religious reading during school hours should not be allowed, the poll found.
Those who are not affiliated with a religion were more likely than white evangelical Christians, nonwhite Protestants and Catholics to disapprove of religious chaplains providing counseling, teachers guiding their class in prayer and private prayer and religious reading periods during school, according to the poll.
A Pew Research Center poll of 36,908 U.S. adults, taken between July 17, 2023 and March 4, 2024, found that 57% of U.S. adults said teachers should be allowed to lead their class in prayers that reference God but no specific religion, McClatchy News reported.
Religion and the highest court in the land
The re-energized push for religion in public schools, mostly led by Christian groups, comes as the U.S. Supreme Court maintains a conservative majority.
The current members are also all religious, with six Catholics, two Protestants and one Jew making up the court, according to Gallup.
A plurality of Americans, 37%, said they think religion has too much influence on SCOTUS, compared with 26% who said it has too little influence, according to the poll.
Thirty-five percent of Americans said they thought religion's influence on SCOTUS was at a sweet spot, the poll found.
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