Education in America

3 Pages 853 Words

The Constitution of the United States of America is the base of how our government was formed. It's made up of several amendments, which states the rights of the people of the United States. It was drafted on September 17, 1787 by a group of men who we call today our "Founding Fathers". The Founding Father's opinions greatly influenced the make-up of the constitution. The First Amendment in the constitution, and one of the most important ones, states that congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, freedom of speech, the press or the right of the people to assemble. Our Founding Fathers opinions sometimes conflicted each other which caused tension when writing and signing the constitution. One particular difference several fathers had was the separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson, a very intelligent and well-respected father, viewed that the separation of church and state was a must in order to have a stable government. In contrast John Dickinson voted against the separation of church and state saying that religion in schools was needed. He even refused to sign the Declaration of Independence because of that reason alone.
In 1984 the Equal Access Act was put into action, which divided the church and state on a clearer line. It was passed after years of problems with the separation of church and state in public schools. The Equal Access Act says that a religious group must be initiated by students and have a voluntary attendance policy. It also says that a public school and its employees may not sponsor or participate but may pay incidental cost and be assigned solely to maintain discipline. The most controversial court case that has happened related to religious activities in schools occurred in the past year. In Santa Fe, Texas two religious families took the independent school district to court saying that it violated their first amendment after allowing a protestant prayer at a high school footbal...