What people are saying:

• Secular Education Association: This is not just an Ohio problem.

  LifeWise and released-time religious instruction programs are expanding across 30+ states — and the rules are not the same everywhere.

  In Ohio, RTRI is not supposed to replace core classes.

  But in some states, the laws are weaker, vaguer, or leave scheduling almost entirely up to districts.

  That means students can miss core instruction, library, specials, intervention, enrichment, or peer time depending on how the program is implemented.

  And somehow families are still told this is just “optional.”

  Optional for whom?

  Because when public schools rearrange the school day around a private religious program, children give something up.

  Ask your district:

  What time is being used?
  What are students missing?
  Who is tracking the disruption?
  What protections are in writing?

  Explore programs near you:
  map.seculareducationassociation.org

• Facebook User: This is insanity. People who want religious programming can get that on their own time or go to a religious school. Get it out of public schools!

  We need to flip leadership in Ohio at the state level to get religion and culture war time wasting legislators out of office.

• Facebook User: How it’s done at Elida Elementary
• Facebook User: There are plenty of opportunities for kids to take their kids to church and other religious training outside of school hours.
• Facebook User: Programs like this should not be in public schools
• Facebook User: Yo take kids out of library time when we continue to live and exist in an information age is horrible. Libraries give kids a resource point to help determine legitimate information sources and find a joy in books.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User you can take your children to a public library which very few parents do . We go to the town library weekly and access all kinds of books and programs they offer .
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Interestingly, this is the same excuse we hear for LifeWise: that some children “don’t have access” to church or Bible classes on the weekend.

    But somehow that logic disappears when the thing being lost is school library time.

    Public school time should not be carved up to solve private religious scheduling problems -especially at the expense of library access, media literacy, and instructional time.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User Hi Connie, where I live, the library closes at 5:30pm. So, how do working families get their kids to the public library when they work until 6pm?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Library time with connections to curriculum is different from going to the library for fun. School librarians and media staff know how their collections work with what kids are learning.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Library class was not just about access to books. I learned about how to do research and use library resources in mine. It’s foundational information that will be useful for the rest of your life and help you think critically.
• Facebook User: I assure you, for the proponents of Lifewise, this was a win.
• Facebook User: Why in the world is religious instruction happening in schools?? It belongs in the home and church.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User they walk or bus them to a second site to get around that.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User still using school time. It’s a waste of taxpayer money.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User because it’s not in the school, it’s off school grounds
  • Facebook User: Facebook User not always, lifewise has gotten in trouble before about using school property
• Facebook User: Libraries in elementary schools also teach to a curriculum. As a teacher, I appreciated the lessons taught on research that coincided with projects taught in the classroom. They also add more in technology skills. LifeWise starts out with taking students during their lunch and recess and then gradually take other time from the school day. Once students figure out that they can get out of an actual class, more sign up for LifeWise. In some cases they get elective hours given to them. That’s the plan and how LifeWise entices more students.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User , that is exactly what I testified about in regards to this bill. The head of Lifewise has said that students could get a book anytime, but that is not the only thing that school library media specialists do. They teach how to use the library, how to do research (in the library and online), how to cite sources, and what copyright and plagiarism are. Librarians also help individual students find books that meet their individual interests. Students missing library consistently will lose real skills, especially the ability to separate facts from “fake news.”
  • Facebook User: Facebook User I think you just hit part of the core. They are replacing those skills with religion. Don’t worry about how to research truth, learn about our truth.
• Facebook User: How very unchristian
  • Facebook User: Facebook User the FUCK it is. so who is it do you suppose is running this shit?
    I had the same bullshit imposed on me in a public schools.

    take your “no true xtian” wankery and go.

• Facebook User: The inconvenience does not need to be placed on the school. If the school has a library, the teacher could use it as a resource for language arts. I could see requiring each students to fill an objective by choosing a library book each week to write a small summary about it. If the student cannot use the school library to pick a book, they would need to find a book somewhere else (county library, store, etc.). A lot of other objectives could regularly be met with using the school’s library books . Basically, follow the objectives and keep them in focus , not what is outside of the school.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User this is about grooming kids with religion.
• Facebook User: We need to DEMAND that Lifewise justify their “need” to operate during school hours, rather than after school hours, when they’d inconvenience nobody.
• Facebook User: They got pressure, bullying, and shunning lessons instead. They were taught that ancient stories were science, and that God doesn’t like that disobedient kid in their class.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User They also get taught that they’re born sinful and deserve eternal punishment. Utter BS.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User horrible
  • Facebook User: Facebook User was this your experience?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User I am a grownup. I get to walk away from fundamentalists.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User wasn’t debating that. I want to know if that was your experience with that LifeWise program or are you just assuming?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Then post the Lifewise curriculum to prove her wrong. Oh that’s right, they hide their curriculum from the public.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User She’s just hates on Christianity and assumes. She’s always commenting negatively about Lifewise on the Christian hate page called Respect Public Schools. Their motto is “be kind and inclusive to everyone except Christians.
• Facebook User: I thought LW was supposed to be during lunch and recess so no classes were missed!
  • Facebook User: Facebook User yea that’s what they say… but it’s not what’s happening
• Facebook User: When I was a kid, it was Wednesday night in our small town. No sports. No extracurriculars. Religious groups had CCS or youth groups or Bible study.
• Facebook User: Some of these comments show that most people don’t remember or know what library class is about.
• Facebook User: In my fifth grade year, several decades ago, I started to learn an instrument. This was voluntary and desired. My lesson took place during school day hours, weekly. During the time allotted for Health Class instruction. I am really in favor of music, arts, language and science education. Maybe that recess thing would have been a better time slot? We definitely have a need for a spare time slot in school.
• Facebook User: Library is not core curriculum and lifewise is voluntary. The Bible is a collection of many books, and examples of some of the earliest works of literarure. why do you oppose studying them instead of the ones in the library?
  • Facebook User: Facebook Userits indoctrination Christina. Your replacing many books on many topics with one book on one topic, and its not even real. Libraries have books based on evidence, yours is a collection of stories at best and is a waste of my child’s valuable instructional time. The Bible can be read at home if you want.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User religion out of school!
  • Facebook User: Facebook User I mean it’s Bible study, so yes they teach the Bible in Bible study. If that’s what you mean by “indoctrination.” And if you don’t want you child to attend, you just don’t sign them up. This is a voluntary program for parents who want their children to attend. And other library books can also be read at home. We went to Bible study every Sunday and Wednesday but we went to the library every two weeks and came home with a stack of books. Fiction is a lot easier to get through at home during free reading time than the Bible.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User so that’s not a rule. The rule actually says you can practice your religion wherever you are. Students don’t lose their first amendment rights at school. And the child’s time is their own. The state can mandate what core curriculum standards are and how many hours have to be spent in school towards those standards, but if you choose to leave the school for an hour a week of religious instruction, you have the right to do that.
• Facebook User: https://www.propublica.org/article/school-vouchers-ohio-church-state-tax-dollars-private-religious
• Facebook User: Please vote blue so we can eliminate this harmful program! Children need to learn about books, read them, and learn to love them. Parents can take their children to Sunday school. This program is unconstitutional.
• Facebook User: That was probably the point. Any minute spent reading books decreases the likelihood of a child growing up to buy into that indoctrination.
• Facebook User: Look at it this way…their reading material was biblical, the only literature needed in the world of today. Also this is “truth” in that faith groups other than the ultraconservative, Christian nationalist version are “verboten”…oops, how did that word get in there?
• Facebook User: Lifewise is ran by a man who wants to abolish all public education, and only about 10 million dollars of the over 30 that the program has made so far has actually been put into the program. (I last checked this last year, could be a little different now.) It’s just another guise to try to indoctrinate children and should be stopped.
• Facebook User: Screw LifeWise and all this “church time during school” bullshit. Take your kids to church on Sunday or whatever day your church practices. You want them to have a religious education, take them out of public school and send them to private school. Full stop. This Christian Nationalist bullshit needs to stop, and it starts with throwing Republicans out of office.