The Trump administration is moving to strengthen protections for students who want to pray or worship in public schools and proposing changes that would make it easier for religious groups that provide social services to access federal funds, a development that comes as the president seeks to shore up support among evangelicals.
Nine federal agencies, including the Education Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department, are advancing rules that would reduce requirements for those religious organizations. The rules would lift an Obama-era executive order that compelled religious organizations to tell the people they serve that they can receive the same service from a secular provider.
In the Oval Office on Thursday, President Trump gathered with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, televangelist Paula White and students who said they had faced religious discrimination in public schools. Trump said his administration was engaged in a “cultural war” to defend school prayer from “the far left.” Continue reading.