In an attempt to clarify the sometimes blurry distinction between church and state in the context of public schools, the U.S. Department of Education released a guide concerning constitutionally protected prayer in public schools last Tuesday. School prayer has been an issue continuously brought up for fresh debate as the federal government tries to define how it fits into the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

The DOE notice stipulates that in order to receive federal funding under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, local educational agencies must certify in writing that it has no policy that prevents prayer in public schools.

“There is a definite history of debate about prayers in schools,” said Adam Nelson, assistant professor of education policy studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Nelson called the withholding of funding a “mandatory-voluntary paradox.”

Occasionally the federal government creates national policy on issues that fall under individual states’ rights to control.

Nelson said a good example of this would be drinking-age laws.

The Supreme Court ruled in the ’70s that federal government does not have the constitutional power to make a national drinking age. However, in order to assure a national drinking age of 21, Congress then ruled it would withhold federal funding for state highway construction, repair and management.

The states knew they would never be able to shoulder the huge weight of those costs without federal help, so they voluntarily heightened their drinking ages.

“I can’t imagine there are schools that think they can continue to receive federal funding while prohibiting individual prayer,” Nelson said.

Nelson said the Department of Education’s notice reiterates the Constitution’s guarantee that no one can be prevented from practicing religion, but it draws an important distinction between individual and organized prayer.

Organized prayer in public schools is illegal, because it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which provides for the separation of church and state. However, preventing students from private speech endorsing their religion would be violating the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses.

The DOE notice aggress with repeated Supreme Court rulings that public school officials must treat religion neutrally.

“The concern is the protection of minority interests,” Nelson said. “For example, a Jewish student might be a minority in a mainly Christian school, or a Catholic student in a mainly Protestant school.”

In October of 2001, less than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Madison Metropolitan School District banned the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. After public outcry and further consideration, the MMSD Board of Education repealed its decision.

Shwaw Vang, a member of the Board of Education for the MMSD, said decisions regarding school-day commencement are currently left up to individual schools.

“The way the law is written, it allows for choice,” Vang said. “We leave it up to the administrators of the school, the principals.”

Vang said some Madison schools continue to say the Pledge of Allegiance. In other schools, students might rise for the playing of the national anthem, with or without lyrics.

“I was visiting an elementary school, and the students started the day by standing, and they played the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ over the loudspeaker, without the words,” Nelson said.