According to the International Herald Tribune, Sweden's Education Minister Jan Bjorklund is drafting rules that would prohibit private religiously-affiliated schools from introducing religious elements into secular courses such as biology. The new rules, which will need Parliamentary approval in order to become effective, are designed to protect students from all forms of fundamentalism. They will also require private confessional schools to report their financial donations to authorities. The rules were drafted after a county administrative court gave permission to the Exclusive Brethren Christian Fellowship to start a school. The group rejects the theory of evolution.
Would this law be constitutional in the U S of A? In Sweden, who protects children from all forms of state-sponsored, secular fundamentalism?
This reminds me of one of the cases we are reading about next week, Pierce v. Society of Sisters (casebook p. 534). In that case, the Court struck down a law requiring all children to attend government schools, a law that effectively prohibited attendance at private schools (including private religious schools). The Ku Klux Klan supported this Oregon law prohibiting private religious education. Why do you think they supported this law?
By the way, Prof. Jim Lindgren of Northwestern law had a recent post on the Volokh blog that may provide a clue--"How Separation of Church and State Was Read Into the Constitution (Hint: the KKK got its way)"
