Laura R. Olson

To what extent might U.S. public schoolteachers be inclined to reject legal limitations placed on their personal religious expression at work? During school hours, they are required to present themselves as religiously neutral, as they are acting as agents of the state. Using data from an original survey of more than 5,000 public schoolteachers across the U.S., I analyze support for laws prohibiting three specific forms of religious expression in the classroom: leading group prayer, displaying religious material on classroom walls, and making assertions of religious “truth”...