Ohio lawmakers are currently weighing a proposed bill that would prevent public school teachers from penalizing students for incorrect work as long as those errors are based on religious beliefs.
Ohio's House passed HB164, also known as the "Student Religious Liberties Act," with a 61-31 vote, sending it along to the Senate, cleveland.com reported.
As one opponent of the bill noted, if a creationist student homework saying that the earth is only 10,000 years old in a biology class, the teacher couldn't mark it wrong.
"Under HB 164, the answer is 'no,' as this legislation clearly states the instructor 'shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student's work," said the ACLU's Gary Daniels.
She said that nonpartisan staff had analyzed the bill and emphasized that students "cannot by rewarded or penalized for the religious content in their assignments."
However, supporters of the bill suggest that the opponents are worrying needlessly.
He said that students who may not agree with the lessons still have to turn in work that reflects what the class teaches.
"It will be graded using ordinary academic standards of using substance and relevance," he said. "This doesn't give students a get-out-of-jail free card."
"We live in a day when our young people are experiencing stress and danger and challenges we never experienced growing up."
He thinks that more religious self-expression in school would help alleviate that.
They include allowing religious groups in schools access to the same resources and facilities as secular groups, measures that Democrats have said are redundant with current state and federal legislation that already protects freedom of religion and expression.
h/t: cleveland.com, Newsweek
