Start school day with prayer or lose funding: Proposed Alabama law will ‘end up in court,’ legislator warns

By Ruth Serven Smith | rserven@al.com

https://www.al.com/news/2026/03/start-school-day-with-prayer-or-lose-funding-proposed-alabama-law-will-end-up-in-court-legislator-warns.html

For three years, an Alabama lawmaker has argued that not enough schools say the Pledge of Allegiance or allow students to pray.

He wants every public school in the state to begin their day with a prayer.

“It’s just being exposed to what this country was built on -- in God we trust,” Rep. Reed Ingram told a legislative committee March 4.

Ingram has two bills in the 2026 session that would put the issue to a statewide vote as a constitutional amendment.

After one committee carried over his bill, HB43, he filed the same text again, as HB511.

Both were debated and amended by different committees.

Both bills also have very different text, and it’s not clear what their future might be.

Ingram told AL.com he prefers the stronger language of HB511.

That bill would make all public schools have prayer and penalize schools that do not participate by withholding 25% of their funding.

During a public hearing, Caleigh Alevy, of Mountain Brook, told lawmakers she wants her community’s school to be a place that focuses on academics, not religion.

Her family is Jewish, and she said her children have been treated differently because of their faith.

“When we want our children to participate in a school with more religious instruction, we can send our kids to Jewish day school,” she said.

“This law makes life worse for those of us who don’t share your beliefs.”

Lawmakers said students would not be forced to participate.

“It’s just straightforward,” said Rep. Chris Sells, of HB511. “We would have a prayer and a pledge, every morning.”

The other version of the bill, HB43, was amended in the House Education Policy Committee, to lower the potential financial penalty to 12.5% and keep prayer optional.

Yet another bill, Senate bill SB5, would require schools to play the “Star Spangled Banner,” but has no religious component.

Supreme Court Precedent

The bills are among several this session dealing with God, Christianity and education in schools. “We’ve been over this issue up and down,” said Rep. Barbara Boyd.

“We’ve done this over and over again and it’s going to end up in court.”

That might be the point.

State and federal officials are eager to encourage more prayer in schools.

The Trump administration said earlier this year that schools should allow students to pray as long as they are not interfering in someone else’s education.