While religion does not play a direct role within education in the United States, the political environment in the United States does have a tremendous impact on what is offered to students regarding topics ranging from sex education (abstinence vs. comprehensive) to how the world was created (creation vs. evolution). So while there is no official, constitutionally mandated role for religion, because these topics are taught at the state’s discretion, religion does impact the educational experience of youth in the United States.

There have been rising political tensions within education across the United States regarding various aspects of the history of the US and its emerging reality. In 2021, there was tremendous tension regarding the usage of critical race theory (CRT) in the classroom. On one side, the events of especially the last decade have increased public awareness regarding issues such as housing segregation, the impacts of criminal justice policy, and the legacy of enslavement on Black Americans. CRT, which is an academic concept that is more than forty years old in reality, became one prism through which society tried to make sense of these historic inequities. The core idea behind the theory is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. CRT posits that racism is part of everyday life, so people—white or nonwhite—who don’t intend to be racist can nevertheless make choices that fuel racism. Critics on the other side claim that the CRT advocates discriminating against white people in order to achieve equity.

In another area of rising tension, at the start of the 2022 school year, school officials in states across the country began banning books about gay and trans experiences, in addition to removing LGBTQ+ affirming posters and flags and disbanding gay-straight alliance (GSA) clubs. In school districts throughout the nation, students have attacked their queer classmates, while state lawmakers have filed hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills with many seeking to redefine lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students’ places in U.S. schools. In the majority of cases, conservative school officials, lawmakers and parents say LGBTQ+ issues do not belong in school because they are political and not age-appropriate for students. Conversely, queer youth and their families, along with LGBTQ+ and allies, say that they feel they are being erased from the U.S. education system.