By Jim Brown
February 21, 2003

(AgapePress) - A new bill would require students in Iowa's public and private schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in the classroom.

The bill was introduced by State Representative Betty DeBoef and is co-sponsored by 55 of her colleagues in the Iowa House. The bill does provide a religious exception for those who object to reciting the Pledge. Under the legislation, students who object, or whose parents object, would be required to maintain a "respectful silence."

Representative DeBoef says the bill is just one small step to restore love of country in schools.

"We’re all more conscious of our need to instill patriotism in our young, especially as a result of the September 11 [terror attacks]," DeBoef says. "Everything that we've heard in the news reports since that time is how these enemies of ours are instilling hatred in their children toward us -- and I believe we have been very remiss in instilling basic patriotism in our own kids."

DeBoef says if the bill is moved out of the Education Committee and brought to the floor of the House for debate, it will pass because only 51 votes are required to do so. And while the bill has gained a good reception in the House, she says it faces opposition from the usual detractors.

"Civil libertarian groups that say you shouldn't force people to make a pledge to something that they maybe don't understand or don't agree to -- that kind of thing is one argument," she says. "Another argument I've heard ... is that we shouldn't be putting mandates on the schools, that they should be able to make their own decisions about whether they're going to do something like this.

"And you even have people object to the time that it takes [to recite the Pledge of Allegiance]," she says. "I think it takes less than a minute a day."

DeBoef says it would be extremely difficult for Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack to veto the bill once it passes both the House and the Senate.

Controversy erupted nationwide over the Pledge of Allegiance last summer when two members of a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the Pledge unconstitutional because it included the words "under God. One day later, one of those two judges stayed his decision, preventing the ruling from taking effect until it was reviewed by the full court. [See Related Article]

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