Religion, Advocacy Coalitions, and the Politics of U.S. Public Schooling

Abstract

Employing the Advocacy Coalition Framework to ground the analysis, this article begins with an historical overview of the US Protestant Right and its involvement with the politics of public schooling. It then moves to a discussion of a few current legal and policy issues (intelligent design, evolution, the Kansas state board of education, school prayer, and prayers offered at commencement), and how Protestant Right groups, at the local, state, and national levels, have played key roles in shaping the debates, and in some cases, the litigation. The article then turns to a brief discussion of the role of Protestant Right in the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominees John Roberts, Harriet Miers, and Samuel Alito. This article concludes with a discussion of the Protestant Right, the changing religious demography of the US, advocacy coalitions and where the politics of religion and public schooling may be moving.