Alabama voters will decide in November whether the state constitution should require every local school board to adopt policies on the daily Pledge of Allegiance, student-led prayer, and a weekly broadcast of the national anthem, the Alabama Reflector reported.
The changes would reach every public school district in Alabama, which had 1,535 public schools serving 751,060 students in the 2024-25 school year, according to federal data.
Amendment 3, sponsored by Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, has two parts. Each local board of education would have to adopt a policy requiring its public K-12 schools to conduct the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each school day and to "give all students the opportunity to voluntarily recite" it, according to the bill's enrolled text. Boards would also have to adopt a policy requiring schools to allow a prayer, as long as the prayer is "initiated by and led by a student" and no student is required to take part.
Students would have the right to opt out of the Pledge or the prayer "based on their own beliefs," the amendment says. Violations could be reported to the local superintendent, who would review them.
The House passed the bill 94-3 and the Senate passed it 30-0, according to the Reflector. Alabama law has required schools to conduct the Pledge each day since 1976, and students cannot be forced to recite it. Students can already pray at school when they are not in class or school activities, the Reflector reported. Ingram said the amendment would protect both practices from lawsuits.
"The Pledge of Allegiance is the law now, but a lot of schools are not doing it," Ingram told the Reflector. "This takes it to a constitutional amendment where if there is any litigation, then it would eliminate the litigation in the future." He did not say which schools were skipping it.
Steven P. Brown, a political science professor at Auburn University, said parts of the amendment could run into U.S. Supreme Court rulings. One is West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the 1943 decision that public schools cannot force students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge. Another is Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, a 2000 ruling that a Texas district's policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at high school football games violated the Establishment Clause, the part of the First Amendment that bars government from establishing religion.
"What is the oversight power of the school in something like this?" Brown said. A student could want to lead a Muslim prayer, the Reflector noted. Ingram said he did not expect that. "It is going to be set up by the school boards. I see more of the Christianity and that type," he said.
The League of Women Voters of Alabama opposes Amendment 3. "The overarching concern is that you are impinging on people's rights," said Kim Bailey, the group's president.
The national anthem amendment
Amendment 4, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would require each local board to have its public K-12 schools broadcast The Star-Spangled Banner during school hours at least once a week. Boards would pick a recording of the first stanza archived by the Library of Congress, or they could let a school band, choir, vocal group, or singer perform the first stanza from original sheet music in the Library of Congress collection, according to the bill's enrolled text. The Senate passed it on March 3, and it won final approval on April 9.
Brown was less concerned about the anthem requirement because it does not ask students to do anything. "I think that is different because it is passive, you are not requiring anybody to do anything," Brown said. The Reflector said it contacted Allen for comment.
Both amendments need a majority of voters to pass.
Sources
Alabama Reflector: Alabama voters to consider Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem, school prayer
Alabama Legislature: HB 511, enrolled (Amendment 3)
Alabama Legislature: SB 5, enrolled (Amendment 4)
Cornell Legal Information Institute: West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
Cornell Legal Information Institute: Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)
School and enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
