Trump says Department of Education will issue guidance about prayer in public schools

Washington — The Department of Education will issue new guidance about prayer in public schools, President Trump announced Monday in a speech at the Bible Museum. 

“I am pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools, and it’s total protection,” the president said, to applause and cheers from attendees ahead of a meeting of the Justice Department’s Religious Liberty Commission. 

Mr. Trump did not provide further details about what the new guidance will be. 

In a speech focused on religious liberty and his administration’s work to protect the interests of religious conservatives, he said it’s “ridiculous” that today’s students are “indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda, and some are even punished for their religious beliefs.” 

The president said the new guidance will support students like Hannah Allen, who was in the audience Monday. According to the First Liberty Institute, which represent Allen, Allen was praying for an injured peer in Honey Grove Middle School’s cafeteria in Honey Grove, Texas in 2018. The school required the students to instead pray behind a curtain, move to an empty gym or go outside, the group said. Under pressure from religious liberty groups, the Honey Grove Texas Independent School District eventually reversed the decision. 

“I know what you went through. I know what you went through,” the president told Allen. 

Mr. Trump also talked about his administration’s efforts to offer tax credits for school choice scholarships, and his efforts to keep transgender students out of sports. The president suggested the nation’s faith and success are linked. 

“When faith gets weaker, our country seems to get weaker,” the president said. “When faith gets stronger, as it is right now, we’re having a very good period of time after some rough years, good things happen for our country. It’s amazing the way it seems to work that way.”

The president said the American people “have to bring back religion in America, bring it back stronger than ever before.”

Against the backdrop of the Bible Museum, the president also announced he donated his Trump family Bible, given to him by his mother, to the museum to be put on display. It was used during both of his inauguration ceremonies.