BATON ROUGE, La. — Litigation is already underway over a new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms, but details of how the requirement will be implemented and enforced remain unclear.
Florida law allows school districts to hire volunteer chaplains to counsel students, while Oklahoma’s top education officer has ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum, joining a growing conservative movement across the country to bring religion into the classroom.
In Louisiana, it is still unclear how the new law will be implemented.
Unless a court blocks the bill, there are just over five months until poster-sized signs of the Ten Commandments will be required in every classroom in elementary, middle and public universities.
But it’s unclear whether the new law has the power to enforce its requirements and punish those who don’t comply.
Supporters of the law say donations will help cover the cost of thousands of posters, while critics say it’s an unfunded mandate that could put a strain on schools.
And teachers in some schools, including in blue-city New Orleans, where residents and officials have a history of resisting conservative policies, have said they are unlikely to hang the posters.
Funds that meet requirements
There are more than 1,300 public schools in Louisiana. Louisiana State University has nearly 1,000 classrooms on its main campus in Baton Rouge alone, and seven other campuses across the state.
That means thousands of posters will be needed to meet the new law.
The new law requires the Louisiana Department of Education to identify resources that can provide the posters free of charge and post them on its website.
Lawmakers supporting the bill said during debate in May that the posters and the funds to print them would likely be donated to schools deep in the Bible Belt.
The law has been praised nationwide by conservative groups and figures, including most recently former President Donald Trump, and could lead to outside financial support for the mandate.
The Louisiana Family Forum, a conservative Christian group, has already set up a donation page on its website that it says will be “used specifically for the purpose of creating and distributing ‘The Ten Commandments’ exhibits to educational institutions throughout the state of Louisiana.”
But the question of what will happen if schools don’t receive enough donations has remained largely unclear for months.
“So a school has the ability to raise money, they can donate posters, but what happens if they can’t raise the money or find the donors?” state Sen. Lois Duplessis, a Democrat who voted against the bill, asked during debate on the bill last month.
“We don’t know what happens after that,” responded Republican state Sen. Adam Bass, a co-author of the legislation.
The Associated Press contacted several of the bill’s co-authors, including Bass, Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office, Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, but they did not respond to questions about funding.
During debate, lawmakers supporting the bill stressed that the law specifies that donations must be used to acquire the posters.
Some have suggested the language in the law could still allow for the purchase of displays with public funds.
“Louisiana law does not appear to prohibit the use of public funds for the display of the Ten Commandments. Such use of taxpayer money only exacerbates this egregious constitutional violation,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which opposes the bill.
The law states that public school authorities “shall not be required” to spend funds on purchasing exhibits.
Instead, “to fund the exhibits free of charge, the school’s public governing body” shall either accept donations to purchase the exhibits or accept donated exhibits.
Opponents charge that despite ample donations, the state is still spending money and resources litigating requirements that they say are unconstitutional.
But supporters say it’s a fight they’re willing to fight.
New Law Comes into Effect
Chris Dyer, Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, said he won’t be posting the Ten Commandments in his classroom.
“We shouldn’t be doing something that’s unconstitutional and harms students,” said Dyer, who teaches at a New Orleans high school.
The law does not state any consequences, so it is unclear whether there will be any penalties for non-compliance.
The law states that the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will establish “rules and regulations” to ensure “proper implementation,” but enforcement may be left to parish school boards or local school districts.
A similar law passed last year requires the motto “In God We Trust” to be displayed in classrooms.
Kevin Calvert, a spokesman for the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said enforcement of the law and penalties for noncompliance will be determined by local education agencies.
The Associated Press emailed 55 school board members across the state, including rural and urban parishes in Republican-majority and Democratic-majority areas, asking whether they supported the law and how they planned to implement it. Two replied that they supported the mandate.
Orleans Parish School Board Vice Chairman Carlos Ruiz Zervigon took a different tack, calling the bill “clearly unconstitutional.”
“I’ve never heard any talk or interest in considering making this mandatory,” the former history teacher said. “My instinct is not to do anything unless it’s forced upon me.”
With the summer recess coming up and many school boards meeting less frequently during the summer, Zervigon said his board has not yet discussed the requirement.
However, if tasked with considering the implementation and enforcement of the order, he is likely to adopt a “wait and see attitude” pending the court’s ruling.
“We’re going to draft a resolution to that effect that says, ‘We’re not going to enforce this until we have legal clarity on whether this is constitutional,'” he said.
But if New Orleans takes the initiative, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry “may take retaliatory action,” Zervigon said.
Landry, a Republican, has tried to punish New Orleans in the past after city officials voiced opposition to implementing Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban.
