Religion and Schooling in Contemporary America: Confronting Our Cultural Pluralism

Despite the fact that most Americans embrace a religious belief system, the United States is a secular nation, largely devoid of any religious influence in its institutions, including its schools. This anthology examines the impact of religion on our nation's public schools. The articles, written by scholars widely respected in their fields, deal with denomination, law, public policy and financing Some religious denominations no longer participate in sponsoring schools for a variety of reasons. Those who do numbered (in 1993-1994) a total of 20,531 institutions, of which 8,331 were Catholic, with an enrollment of 4,202,194, of which 2,516,130 were in Catholic schools. Using numbers alone as a measuring rod, these schools constitute an important part of the American educational landscape. While the movement for choice in American schooling has broadened and deepened in recent years, three critical challenges are still facing religious schools in the United States: keeping schools affordable, yet paying aliving wage to their personnel; maintaining their religious identities with the growing numbers of students who are not members of the sponsoring denominations; and keeping their religious uniqueness if public support becomes available.