A bill letting kids in Tennessee miss an hour of school a day to go to church heads to governor's desk

• A bill requiring Tennessee schools to let students miss an hour of classes a day to go to church passed unanimously in the General Assembly.
• Last year, the Knox County school board tested a policy allowing students to miss one class a month to for church services, WBIR reported.
• Governor Bill Lee hasn't commented on the bill but he previously declared a statewide day of fasting and prayer to address the ongoing opioid epidemic.
• To prevent participants from missing mandatory lessons, schools would have to cut over 22 days of classes for all students, according to American Atheists.

A bill requiring public schools in Tennessee to allow students to miss up to an hour a day to go to church has cleared the General Assembly.

The Tennessee House of Representatives passed HB 2542 unanimously on Monday, after a similar victory in the state Senate last week. The measure now heads to Governor Bill Lee, who is expected to sign it into law.

Introduced by Rep. Dennis Powers (R-Jacksboro) and Sen. Ken Yager (R-Kingston), it mandates public schools excuse a student "to attend a released time course in religious moral instruction for no more than one class period per school day" if requested by a parent or guardian.

HB 2542 also authorizes public school buses to be used to transport those students, provided the religious institution reimburses the board of education.

Programs that allow for off-campus prayer or private religious education during school hours are typically known as "released time."

Current Tennessee law allows students to take released time if it's approved by the local school board. The new measure would allow it "regardless of whether the local board of education has adopted a policy."

Released-time initiatives began in the US in the 1910s and expanded through the 1940s, when they met their first constitutional challenges. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that schools were not allowed to use public resources to support such programs.

Later rulings established that such programs cannot be held on school property and that students cannot be coerced into participating. However, schools are allowed to offer academic credit for released-time programs if they meet certain criteria.

Last year, the Knox County school board tested out a released-time policy, allowing students to miss just one class a month to attend services at a nearby church. The school board voted 5-4 to end the program in December, WBIR reported.

HB 2542 would overrule the board's decision.

Governor Lee did not respond to a request for comment, but he has been vocal about his Christian faith: In 2019, he declared a statewide day of fasting and prayer, the Tennessean reported.

Lee told constituents that God would hear their pleas to improve the state's educational system and ease the opioid epidemic.

"The separation of church and state is never intended to keep people of faith out of government," he told the Tennessee Legislative Prayer Caucus, the Tennessean reported, "but to keep government out of the church."

In 2018, Lee signed a law requiring all public schools to display a marker reading "In God We Trust."

The released-time bill has drawn criticism from some corners.

American Atheists described HB 2542 as "the most expansive church release-time legislation in the country."

"Tennessee's church release time bill harms public education throughout the state — and, therefore, student performance," said the group's policy analyst, Allison Gill. "To prevent participating students from missing mandatory education, schools would have to cut programming for all students.

By Gill's estimation, that would come to 22.5 missed school days every year for all students.

Last year, Tennessee came 38th in U.S. News & World Report's ranking of state education systems.

On Facebook, the Satanic Children's Ministry of Tennessee seemed to take pleasure in the vote.

"We have waited so long for that wall of separation to be dismantled so we can get our message out to all children across the state," the group said. "We just can't contain our excitement! It's so hard to spread our message as of now but this will allow us to teach Satanic children the best ways our spreading our teachings to their classmates."

"Satanism is already the fastest-growing religion in Tennessee," it added. "This should help us grow even faster."