A proposed Constitutional amendment which would permit Bible reading and prayer recitation in public schools received a co-sponsor in the U. S. Senate today while a controversy was developing in nearby Delaware on the issue.
Senator Vance Hartke, Indiana Democrat, announced his co-sponsorship of the amendment which was introduced by Senator J. Glenn Beall, Maryland Republican. The proposal was evoked by the Supreme Court ruling earlier this month banning those practices in public schools as unconstitutional.
The developing debate in Delaware centered on a ruling by State Attorney General David P. Buckson that Bible readings and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer could be continued in the public schools of the state on a voluntary basis. Harry D. Zutz, a member of the Delaware Board of Education, said the ruling did not “comply” with the U. S. Supreme Court decisions. The ruling also was questioned by Dr. Thomas W. Howie, superintendent of a north Delaware school district, and by Gail C. Velden, president of the Wilmington Board of Education, covering the state’s largest school district.
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