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SPRINGFIELD—State lawmakers thrust Illinois into the center of the national debate on school prayer today as the House approved legislation to require public schools to provide students with a moment of silence at the start of classes.Students from kindergarten through high school will be allowed to silently pray in whatever faith they practice or simply sit and reflect quietly. Illinois teachers and students have had the option of doing so since 2002, but it wasn't mandated.The Illinois House voted to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's late August veto of the silent-moment measure. The governor cited concerns about the separation of church and state."The law in Illinois today already allows teachers and students the opportunity to take a moment for silent thought or prayer, if they chose to," Blagojevich wrote. "I believe this is the right balance between the principles echoed in our constitution, and our deeply held desire to practice our faith. As a parent, I am working with my wife to raise our children to respect prayer and to pray because they want to pray—not because they are required to."But the Senate moved to overturn the governor's veto last week by a wide margin, and the House did the same today.The sponsor, Rep. William Davis (D-East Hazel Crest), had to retain 71 of the 86 House members who approved the legislation earlier this year to override Blagojevich. Davis got 74 votes after a short debate.Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) told her colleagues there is a place for a brief period of silence in students' lives, given how they are "bombarded" by noise and information all day."They come to school listening to their iPods," Monique Davis said. "To just have a moment in a child's life where he or she can be guaranteed a moment of silence, we don't want to give them that?"Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), who is often at odds with the governor, said he supported Blagojevich's veto because the legislation is really about prayer in schools. "Why we must mandate this is way beyond me," Lang said. "It's wrong from so many points of view."The moment of silence is supposed to take effect when the measure becomes law. But it may take some time for school districts to get notification and come up with a way to implement the requirement.That also assumes that no civil liberties group challenges the law in court, as has happened in other states like Virginia. The moment-of-silence law there was upheld by a federal appeals court, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the ruling, according to newspaper accounts.Carpentersville-based District 300 Supt. Kenneth Arndt said sometimes when government mandates something, it diminishes the value of it. Besides that, he felt the legislation was a "non-issue," especially at the high schools."I was just at a high school this morning and I felt sorry for the first-period teachers trying to get these kids to wake up," Arndt said, chuckling. "When was the last time these legislators visited any schools?"Since the Supreme Court struck down mandatory school prayer in 1962, about three dozen states have passed legislation authorizing school districts to set aside up to five minutes for silent meditation or time to pray.A movement to push for variations of the moment of silence law has been growing for about three decades."Since then, some states have been moving to what they call a neutral moment of silence," said Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C. "They don't mandate the moment be used for prayer. And the trend has been for the courts to uphold those. We don't like them, but generally speaking the courts are more receptive to that idea."As in the days of Noah....
