Alabamans will be voting Nov. 3 on a state constitutional amendment that would require local school boards to adopt policies providing student-led prayers in public-school classrooms.
The provision is part of Amendment 3, which also would require the boards to adopt policies requiring daily student recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag.
Amendment 3 was placed on the ballot by the Alabama Legislature’s passage of House Bill 511 earlier this year. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Reed Ingram, was approved in overwhelming, bipartisan votes: The House passed the amendment 94-3, with full Republican support except from one representative who didn’t vote, and 19-3 Democratic support with seven Democrats not voting. The amendment passed in the Senate 30-0 with two Republicans and three Democrats not voting.
Alabama state law already has strong protections for students to engage in religious expression during the school day. Students are allowed specifically to pray or engage in religious activities or religious expression before, during, and after the school day; express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments; and wear clothing, accessories, and jewelry that display religious messages or religious symbols. Under the constitutional amendment, students also would be allowed to “conduct” classroom prayers, although neither the term “conduct” nor “prayer” is defined. Those specifics presumably will be determined by local boards if the amendment passes and is upheld by courts.
According to Ballotpedia, 35 states have laws requiring schools to provide a moment of silence or a time where students can voluntarily pray. If the amendment passes, Alabama would become the first where students could conduct prayers.
The relevant portion of the proposed amendment reads:
(a) Each local board of education shall adopt a policy requiring each public K-12 school under its jurisdiction, at the beginning of each school day, to conduct The Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag and give all students the opportunity to voluntarily recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag.
(b) Each local board of education shall adopt a policy requiring each public K-12 school under its jurisdiction to allow a prayer to be conducted, provided that:
(1) The prayer must be initiated by and led by a student; and
(2) No student may be required to participate in a prayer.
(c) Any policy adopted by a local board of education pursuant to this section shall ensure that students have the right to opt out of participation in the Pledge of Allegiance or the prayer based on their own beliefs.
(d) Violations of this section may be reported to the local superintendent of education. The local superintendent of education shall review the violation.
A similar amendment was considered in the Legislature last year but did not pass. It would have required the prayers to be “consistent with Judeo-Christian values.” Presumably, that requirement was omitted from the current version in order to make it more likely to gain judicial approval should opponents challenge the amendment in court.
There do not appear to be any organized campaigns spending money to support nor oppose the amendment. The League of Women voters, however, has opposed the amendment, raising concerns about government involvement in religion.
The measure is expected to pass. A 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 75 percent of Alabama adults favored having public-school teachers lead students in Christian prayer.
Ingram, the amendment’s legislative sponsor, explained his backing for the amendment to the Washington Post this way:
A lot of times, these kids go into school and find something to gravitate towards, whether it’s cigarettes, marijuana, drugs, or just running with the wrong crowd. I just thought that maybe we could try to go back to [prayer] to see if we could give these kids an opportunity to find something different.