parochial schools — Bunk History

An 18th-century building travels Feb. 10 from its location on the campus of William & Mary to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.

Schools for Black American Children Predated the Revolution

Efforts in early America to educate Black children offer us a template for addressing educational inequality today.

by Grant Stanton via Made By History on February 27, 2023

Image of a cross combined with a scale to symbolize the connection of religion and justice in today's America.

The Supreme Court Has Ushered In a New Era of Religion at School

For two centuries, America had kept questions of church and state at bay. The country is not ready for the ones to come.

by Adam Laats via The Atlantic on July 15, 2022

Children jump rope in the dirt yard of a Catholic school while their peers watch.

Pierce at 100

A century ago, the Court recognized the essential right of parents to direct the education of their children.

by Mark David Hall, Ernie Walton via Law & Liberty on May 30, 2025

Collage of school children, church windows, and a map of Oklahoma territory.

Oklahoma Is Asking the Supreme Court to Ignore History

The Founders had disagreements about the role of religion in America’s public schools, but there was always one line they would not cross.

by Adam Laats via The Atlantic on April 25, 2025

"The American River Ganges," a 1871 political cartoon by Thomas Nast from Harper's Weekly, depicting Catholic priests as foreign crocodiles preying on US children, illustrating the fear behind the proposed Blaine Amendment.

After the Blaine Era

The landscape for educational freedom is finally freed of 19th century prejudices, but other federal constitutional questions remain.

by Bruno V. Manno via Law & Liberty on December 4, 2023

An open textbook.

The Right-Wing Textbooks Shaping What Americans Know

Conservative curricula are being pushed into tax-funded history classrooms.

by Adam Laats via Made By History on October 11, 2023

Lithograph of a town street with a printing press on the corner.

To Remember or to Forget

The story of philanthropists Catherine Williams Ferguson and Isabella Marshall Graham’s unlikely interracial collaboration.

by Amanda Bowie Moniz via Commonplace on August 1, 2022

The Old Culture War Over Bible Reading in Public Schools is Starting Again

It was among the first social issues to split American Protestants into liberal and conservative camps.

by David Mislin via The Conversation on February 4, 2019

Evangelicals Bring the Votes, Catholics Bring the Brains

To understand Catholic overrepresentation on the U.S. Supreme Court, we must look to the history of American Catholic education.

by Gene Zubovich via Aeon on October 9, 2018

I Pledge . . . Allegiance?

American law says schools must honor the Pledge of Allegiance. Schools may have other plans.

by Maggie Phillips via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on February 4, 2025

The Sanitizing of Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism’s origins lie in a donor plan to neutralize and refine the radical Jewish immigrant masses.

by Allen Lipson via Jewish Currents on October 19, 2022

A statue of Christopher Columbus.

Middle Schoolers Take on Columbus

A lesson on contextualizing history.

by Alex Pinelli via Perspectives on History on October 8, 2020

Trump among a group of people with heads bowed in prayer.

Evangelicalism and Politics

Four historians weigh in on evangelicals' affinity for Trump – and their commitment to the conservative movement more broadly.

by John Fea, Lerone A. Martin, Laura Gifford, R. Marie Griffith via The American Historian on November 30, 2018

Demonstrators protesting new history curriculum

How The Culture Wars Destroyed Public Education

The left's Pyrrhic victory in the culture wars.

by Andrew Hartman via Made By History on September 5, 2017

When Privatization Means Segregation: Setting the Record Straight on School Vouchers

The ugly roots of the "school choice" movement.

by Leo Casey via Dissent on August 9, 2017

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