Religious discrimination
Does religious discrimination occur in American schools?
The worrisome answer is ‘yes’
For years, civil libertarians have expressed concern that American public school educators infringe on the right of students to exercise religious freedom. While there is substantial anecdotal evidence to support this claim, many educators and researchers insist that allegations of religious discrimination are overblown and that the existing evidence reflects the actions of a few ‘bad apples’ rather than a systematic bias against students with certain beliefs. In our recently published paper in the Public Administration Review, we tested these competing arguments. We found that US educators discriminate not just against religious minorities — Muslims and Atheists — but against very religious Catholics and Protestants as well.
Studying religious discrimination in American schools
To determine the extent of religious discrimination in American schools, we conducted a type of experiment that researchers call an audit or correspondence study. The experiment was designed to measure the degree to which US public school principals would respond differently to families based on their religious beliefs. To do this, we sent emails to a sample of more than 45,000 public school principals and asked for a meeting, randomly assigning (a) the religious affiliation or non-affiliation of the family and (b) the intensity of their affiliation.
Our primary experimental manipulation involved embedding a quote at the bottom of the email: “[. . . ] teaches that life is precious and beautiful. We should live our lives to the fullest, to the end of our days.” We signaled the family’s religious views by including “Christianity,” “Catholicism,” “Islam,” or “Atheism” in the quote. We also changed the purported author of the quote to Rev. Billy Graham, Pope Benedict, the prophet Muhammad, or Richard Dawkins, depending on the family’s beliefs.
We also randomly varied how strongly we emphasized the fictional family’s religious beliefs. In some cases, the email indicated that the family wanted to find a school that was compatible with their beliefs; in others, the family noted that it expected accommodation for their beliefs.
For comparison purposes, some emails included no quote or reference to religion at all.
Overall, principals or their staff responded to our emails about 43 percent of the time, which is similar to response rates from similar studies.
US principals discriminate against religious minorities and very religious Christians
Our study provides two key insights into how students are treated in the US public school system.
One is that religious minorities were much less likely to receive a reply. Compared to families that didn’t indicate a religious belief through a quote at the bottom of the email, the probability of a Muslim family receiving a reply was lower by 4.6 percentage points. Emails sent with a quote signed by Richard Dawkins at the end of the missive had a 4.7 percentage point lower probability of receiving a reply. Protestants and Catholics, on the other hand, faced no such discriminatory behavior; they were just as likely to receive a reply as individuals who said nothing about religion at all.
The results are slightly different for families who exhibited a strong religious identity. We again find discrimination against religious minorities. Muslim families that are looking for a compatible school or for some accommodation of their beliefs are about 9 percentage points less likely to receive a reply; Atheist families who express the same interests are about 14 percentage points less likely to receive a response. Interestingly, we find similar patterns of discrimination against Protestants and Catholics who make similar requests, as those families are about 5 and 6 percentage points less likely to receive replies.
This suggests that the public officials in our sample discriminate against individuals with strong religious beliefs in part because they perceive that serving such families will impose costs on them. Their costs could arise because these families are perceived to make illegitimate, costly demands on schools or because other members of the school community might object to their presence, causing conflicts that principals would prefer to avoid completely.
Why this research matters
In a context of heightened scrutiny towards social out-groups at all levels of government, public schools play a vitally important role in ensuring that social minorities actually receive the equal treatment they are afforded under the law. Our results show that this equal treatment is not currently being provided to Muslims, Atheists, and ardent Protests and Catholics. We hope our findings persuade public school officials and other policymakers to prioritize testing and implementing new policies and practices that protect believers of all faiths.
Charles Crabtree is assistant professor of government at Dartmouth College.
John B. Holbein is assistant professor of public policy, politics, and education in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.
Holger L. Kern is associate professor of political science at Florida State University.
Steven Pfaff is professor of sociology at the University of Washington.
