Dear Marty, In this case, if I am reading the opinion correctly, the credits in question are coming from "Oakbrook Preparatory
School, an accredited private Christian school." In my view, the decision is "welcome" because -- as Marc says, below -- I think it would be the wrong approach to say that, when a student transfers from a non-state school to a state school, he or she may only receive "credit" for courses with the requisite "secular" content. As Judge Niemeyer wrote: Also important to our conclusion is the governing principle that private religious education is an integral part of the American school system. Indeed, States are constitutionally obligated to allow children and parents to choose whether to fulfill their compulsory education obligations by attending a secular public school or a religious private school. See Pierce v. Soc’y of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534-35 (1925). It would be strange and unfair to penalize such students when they attempt to transfer into the public school system by refusing to honor the grades they earned in their religious courses, potentially preventing them from graduating on schedule with their public school peers. Far from establishing a state religion, the acceptance of transfer credits (including religious credits) by public schools sensibly accommodates the "genuine choice among options public and private, secular and religious." Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639, 662 (2002) (upholding an Ohio voucher initiative for this reason). The court was careful to note that the school district had not encouraged students to participate or inappropriately endorsed religion. Like Marc, I can imagine some abuses, and hard cases, but this one does not seem (to me) to be one. Best, Rick Richard W. Garnett Professor of Law & Associate Dean Notre Dame Law School P.O. Box 780 Notre Dame, IN 46556-0780 574-631-6981 (office) 574-631-4197 (fax) ________________________________ From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Marc DeGirolami [marc.degirol...@stjohns.edu] Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2012 10:13 AM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: RE: Providing public school credits for release-time religious classes One conceivable difficulty is the entanglement problem. When a student transfers in to public school from a religious school, there may be several different sorts of courses that the student will have taken which may combine, in various degrees, “religious” and “secular” components. I’m not sure I agree with Marty that it is always the case that the transferred credits are awarded solely for purely secular courses. Segregating out the secular and religious components can be difficult. And getting the school district involved in determining which are purely secular, and which are mixed, and which are purely religious, might risk excessive entanglement. Having said that, I agree that awarding credits for, e.g., CCD class or equivalent education is problematic. Marc From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Marty Lederman Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2012 9:58 AM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Providing public school credits for release-time religious classes www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/111448.P.pdf<http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/111448.P.pdf> A South Carolina school district set up a Zorach-like release time program for religious instruction at an unaccedited religious school. Then it decided to give the participating students academic credit for their purely religious studies in the release-time program. The Fourth Circuit upholds this program, on the theory that it's no different from recognizing credits from a private, accredited religious school when a student transfers to the public school. But in that latter case (or in the related context of giving "credit" for home-schooling), the credits presumably are awarded based upon the showing or the presumption that they reflect the student's completion of the necessary secular curriculum. Here, the education in question is specifically religious in nature (that's the point, and there's no indication in the opinion of any secular content). That is to say, the credit is being offered for the religious education simplicitur. Is this holding defensible? On Mirror of Justice, Rick Garnett calls it "welcome," but it's not obvious to me why that might be so.
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