Louisiana Becomes First State to Require Ten Commandments to Be Displayed in Public School Classrooms
Katherine Hamilton 19 Jun 2024
A poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments is required to be displayed in every public school classroom in Louisiana under a bill signed into law on Wednesday.
Louisiana is the first state to successfully pass legislation requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, including state-funded universities, since the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to banish the tenets from America’s classrooms in 1980. Efforts to restore the commandments to public schools are active in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah, although none so far have been successful.
The bill outlines that no state funding is to be used to place the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms — rather, schools may accept donated funds to purchase displays, or accept donated displays.
“I’m going to organize an effort, and we will fund it,” Dean Young told Breitbart News on Wednesday ahead of the bill’s signing. Young is a Christian activist who has worked for 30 years to restore the Ten Commandments to classrooms across the United States.
“There will be a Ten Commandments for every single classroom in Louisiana, at LSU, at every college — and it will be funded,” Young continued.
The bill points to more recent decisions by the Supreme Court finding that the Ten Commandments “have historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system” and represent a “common cultural heritage.” The bill further states that “Recognizing the historical role of the Ten Commandments accords with our nation’s history and faithfully reflects the understanding of the founders of our nation with respect to the necessity of civil morality to a function self-government.”
“History records that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America, stated that ‘(w)e have staked the whole future of our new nation . . . upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments,”‘ the bill reads.
The bill also allows, but does not require, the display of Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance. The bill mandates that displays be paired with a four-paragraph context statement, in which the Ten Commandments are described as “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” Public school classrooms from kindergarten to universities must have the displays no later than January 1, 2025.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/06/19/louisiana-becomes-first-state-to-require-ten-commandments-to-be-displayed-in-public-school-classrooms/
