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Separation Of Church And State: Fact Or Fiction?, Wesley Hickey, Peggy Gill, Rebecca Ratliff Fredrickson

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Court cases over the past several decades have been consistent in following the constitutional mandates separating religious issues and public education, thus eroding government sponsored activities associated with faith (Irons, 2007). This has created concern in some segments of society that values religious beliefs, and there are political groups that believe public school decline is due in part to a lack of religious instruction (Bergel, 1988). But how separate is church and state in our public schools? Are the legal precedents followed? The purpose of this paper is to look at the public schools' requirements in separating issues of church …