NYC starts mid-day prayer in Pre-k

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's plans on introducing religious teaching and prayer time to the Pre kindergarten schools. Groups are already oppossed to the idea, stating that allowing prayer in a public school is violating the constitutional right of keeping church seperate from state. This implement would not just apply to dominantly Christian schools, but also Jewish and Muslim schools.

De Blasio hopes this will help decrease the wealth gap by saving the parents the cost of sending their children to private schools that allow them to practice their religion. The plan involves placing the prayer time during a midday break, but this raises even more problems. Doing it in the middle of the day means the schools need to provide a place for the students who choose not to pray with the rest of the students.

There is also the concern that this plan will take away from class time for those who practice Orthodox Judiasm, who spend class time learning in Hebrew. De Blasio suggested holding school on federal holidays and Sundays to make up for the missed class time, which brings a whole new group of problems involving getting teachers to school during their weekend, excusing students that can not attend due to religious commitments, etc.

The Orthodox schools have said they can not participate in this plan, and Maya Wiley, a counsel to the mayor said,"We're not violating any law here. All we're doing is making sure we can maximize the number of seats that we can create for kids. It's also true that we can't please everyone."

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