Education
Bill would require public school students to say Pledge of Allegiance, critics say requirement is costly, disruptive and difficult to enforce
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By Sam Inglot
Capital News Service
Lansing– Public school students in Michigan would recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily in the classroom if a Senate bill is passed into law. The bill, introduced by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, would require a school district to have an American flag in every classroom and mandate that every student recite the Pledge of Allegiance each school day. Requiring students to recite the pledge and the accompanying controversy are not new, said Arlene Marie, state director of the Michigan Atheists. And it’s not just over the phrase “under God.”
“The ‘under God’, is far less important to me than the entire sense that requiring the Pledge of Allegiance is just plain wrong,” she said. “It is divisive and there are many reasons why parents would not want their children to say the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Children are not old enough to understand an oath or a pledge to anything, she said.