Religious Diversity in the Schools.

This document contains four papers that address constitutional issues of religious diversity in the schools. The first paper, "Religious Diversity in the Schools--The Overview" (George J. Michel), provides an overview of religious diversity in American public schools, with a focus on the long history of cooperation with Christian churches. It describes the support for religious teaching in the school during colonial times, the evolution versus creationism controversy, obstacles to cooperation between schools and the religious community, and court-generated solutions to school conflict over religion. It is concluded that schools should make positive interaction with religious groups a priority. The second paper, "Religious Diversity in the Schools--Christian Fundamentalism, Educational Reform, and the Schools" (William Gause Smith), describes the actions and agendas of Christian fundamentalist groups pertaining to public education. The third paper, "Religious Diversity in the Schools--The Case of Kiryas Joel" (Dianne Koenig Vickers), describes the case of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic sect that was allowed to create a new school district. This gave the sect public education funds to educate their special needs children. The paper discusses the legal implications of a separate school district formed for a specific religious group's benefit and related court cases. The fourth paper, "Religious Diversity in the Schools--The Case of Bishop Knox at Wingfield High School" (Elsie Brown), examines court decisions pertaining to conflicts over school prayer and religious devotion in the schools. It also presents results of a survey conducted at a South Carolina high school, which showed student support for daily student-led school prayer over the intercom. Out of 580 students who completed the survey, 386 (67%) were in favor of having a student-led prayer read over the intercom system each morning. (Contains 95 references.) (LMI)