It's kind of a slow news day, so I might as well focus on what's dominating many of our lives this week anyway: it's back to school time. When it comes to church-state separation, public schools offer special challenges for representatives of government (i.e., teachers and school administrators). Parents and taxpayers have the right to demand that the classroom and the school campus do not become venues for religious indoctrination or coercion (and what counts as coercion will be different depending on the age group). At the same time, students are not required to abandon the religion being instilled at home and in their church, synagogue or mosque just because they enter the school grounds.
The Baptist Joint Committee has significant resources dealing with these very issues. Check out the Public Schools issue page, which includes a Teacher's Guide and Parent's Guide to Religion in Public Schools, among many other articles and documents.
