from today's
New York TimesThe children filed out of yellow school buses and descended the stairs to the basement of a Jewish community center in Queens, where they put on plastic aprons and paper chef hats in preparation for a lesson on how to make matzo.
But the trip was not really about baking. It was a dose of religious education, offered free to public school students — during school hours, outside their school’s buildings — under a long-running program known as “released time.”
Established some 70 years ago in school districts nationwide, the program allows children to leave public school early one day a week for religious instruction. It has survived constitutional challenges and dwindling enrollment. In the 1950s and 1960s as many as 100,000 New York City public school students took part; it had just 11,507 participants last month, about 1 percent of the school population, according to the city’s Department of Education.
...snip...
Released time in New York City happens every Wednesday, from 2 p.m. until 3 p.m., which generally leaves instructors with little more than 40 minutes for religious education, accounting for travel time between school and wherever the class is held, be it a church, mosque, synagogue or community center. Teachers whose students participate in released time are advised not to teach any new material during that time. If a test is scheduled, makeup dates should be offered.
I'm aware things like this happen in the Bible Belt, but I was stunned to find it was happening here. Does anyone understand
how this possibly passes constitutional muster, especially holding back education for non-participants in the name of fairness?