In the Courier Journal, Linda Allewalt voices objections to the push by some Kansas legislators to require that students in public schools be sent from the building for a dose of “moral instruction.”
On the heels of school districts in Kentucky exercising their choice not to bind themselves to any off- campus religious programming for public school students, State Reps. Shane Baker, Daniel Fister and Jason Petrie have decided in true Crusader style to force all public schools in Kentucky to do so. House Bill 829 is all about students leaving public schools to attend “moral instruction” offered off-campus during school hours.
There are not a lot of choices as to which program the schools now must bind themselves to, so in a big surprise, the LifeWise Academy of Hilliard, Ohio, which has been attempting to make inroads into Kentucky, will get the nod. Apparently, a handful of school districts have already turned LifeWise down, so LifeWise went to their Christian dominionist friends in the legislature to remedy their hurt.
The sponsors of this bill might as well be honest about their intentions here. They wish to do everything they can to weaken the public school system. They want to run our school boards and take away local control. The Kentucky legislature has already done runarounds that counter what the people have mandated in referendums concerning school vouchers/charter school funding and abortion rights, so why not force our schools to participate in obvious violations of the constitutional right to separation of religion and government too?
The founder of LifeWise is Joel Penton, a kind of jack-of-all-trades that have to do with Christian promotion. He has stated many times that public schools are “mission fields” and agrees with the philosophy that Christians have a divine right to rule public schools. He and his organization plans to bombard many states with legislation that changes the “may participate” to “shall participate” in off-campus programs.
The programs are not only geared to right-wing Christian proselytizing, they are also connected to movers and shakers in the Christian nationalist movement and Project 2025-type figures who all make it financially feasible for LifeWise to work with millions of dollars for buses and promotional costs, and make a tidy profit on top on that.