Every Major U.S. School District Allows Churches To Rent Schools, Except New York City

Author: ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence

No other major school district in the U.S. prohibits religious groups from renting school buildings for worship services, except New York City. That is the conclusion of a memo that ADF wrote, after attorneys for the New York City Council asked for research showing the facilities use policies for the 50 largest school districts in the nation (in terms of number of students). New York City, of course, is number 1, but the next 49 largest school districts permit what NYC prohibits. A church or synagogue or Buddhist temple can rent a school building in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dade County Florida or Clark County, Nevada (those are the #2-#5 largest school buildings in the nation).

What this means is that school officials in every other major school district in the country have rejected the arguments NYC uses to exclude churches – arguments like, “students will be confused if they see a church meeting in their school on a Sunday morning,” or, “this is a government subsidy for religion.” If students are confused, then their parents and teachers should explain that in America, we support freedom of speech, and accommodate community groups by allowing them to meet in empty school buildings to advocate their ideas.

Also, there is no government subsidy of religion, because the only money changing hands is from the churches paying to meet in the schools. This is not an “in kind” contribution by the government to the churches, because every community group – Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, labor unions, Kiwanis Clubs, flower clubs, dance troupes, etc., all pay the same rate to get a permit to meet in the schools.

This post originally appeared here.