Ohio Republicans used a life-saving Narcan bill to promote more religious indoctrination

A sneaky amendment to a Narcan bill shows just how far lawmakers will go to privilege faith over actual education

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This past May, the Ohio legislature passed a bill that was so uncontroversial, it sailed through the State House 96-0. That wasn’t surprising at all since House Bill 57 created a policy for naloxone, an overdose-reversal drug that goes by the name Narcan and has saved countless lives, especially in areas with heavy opioid use.

If schools wanted to stock Narcan, the bill said those schools had to “adopt clear policies for storage, administration, and emergency response.” Perfectly sensible. It also gave schools the ability to receive donations so they could purchase naloxone.

But when that bill reached the State Senate, perhaps knowing it would pass without controversy, Republicans inserted a measure allowing public schools to give students even more time to attend Bible study during the school day.

While students were already allowed to skip two periods a week to attend church-sponsored “released time” classes, the bill that now awaits the Republican governor’s signature allows school districts to remove that cap entirely. Now kids can attend Bible study as long as they want if the district gives them permission.

The front page of LifeWise’s website brags about Bible classes offered during the school day (screenshot via LifeWise)

In case you’re lost, here’s some background: Ohio, like many states, allows students to take advantage of “released time,” a portion of the school day when they can attend religious classes at an off-campus location. The bill in question doesn’t mention Christianity, but it’s clearly meant to benefit LifeWise Academy, the most well-known group that organizes these classes. LifeWise takes care of the curriculum, staff, and background checks; local chapters (usually churches) tap into the network for use in their own local public school districts. Students then go to those churches during the school day, get their dose of biblical indoctrination, then return to school for the rest of the day.

Technically, “released time” policies are religiously neutral. Any organization—even a Satanic one—is allowed to offer these classes. Parents have to opt in to let their kids participate. No school funds are used for them. (For example, if students are transported to a local church for these lessons, the church has to pay for the buses.) Students have to make up any missed assignments. They also can’t skip certain core classes, like English or math.

In reality, though, only larger religious groups have the infrastructure to pull this off, at least to the point where laws are changed to accommodate them.

I’ve written a lot about how these “released time” policies are not just about indoctrinating kids from Christian families but also meant to coerce and pressure kids from non-Christian families into attending the classes. (When students see their peers returning from church with candy and toys, they may ask their parents to let them go to church too, leading some districts to adopt policies banning those kinds of goodies altogether.)

Ohio, where LifeWise is headquartered, had already given the group everything it wanted. Hell, earlier this year, the state passed a law requiring districts to have “released time” when the previous law simply allowed it. Now those same religious groups want kids to be able to skip even more school than that law allowed, and lawmakers are bending over backwards to give it to them.

… Sen. Andrew Brenner, a Delaware County Republican, said around 50 school districts, primarily in Northwest Ohio, contacted lawmakers, saying that the two periods requirement was limiting Catholic students who normally ran down the street to the local church for daily Mass and sometimes catechism.

So the Senate Education Committee amended HB 57 to say local school boards can extend the cap for release time beyond the two periods.

It’s not clear why skipping two periods—roughly 100 minutes—is still not enough for those students. They could always go to church before or after school. They can also go on weekends. The only way this bill makes sense is if the goal is to undermine public education… which has long been a Republican goal.

As Leila Atassi, the Public Interest and Advocacy editor at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, writes, this is just another example of religious privilege:

If I decided my daughter needed two hours or more out of school each week to hike in the woods and connect with something larger than herself, would the state bless that? If another family wanted to pull their child for meditation or community service, would lawmakers rush to protect their right to do so? Of course not. Only religion earns that privilege—and at the moment, LifeWise is profiting from it.

That said, even if it were an option, I wouldn’t pull my kids out of class for extracurricular instruction, because it disrupts the rhythm of learning for everyone. Teachers have to stop and adjust lessons around who’s coming and going. Classmates lose continuity. It creates distraction and division. And it sends an unintended message about what matters in a school day—that electives like art, music and physical education are expendable, the periods worth skipping, when they’re often the classes that keep students most engaged in school and well-rounded in life.

There is a way around this, though, as Atassi makes clear.

The new law still says students cannot skip “a core curriculum subject course to attend a religious instruction course.” Last year, one district adopted a policy that said every course that gives out letter grades is now considered “core curriculum.” That means students in that district are not allowed to skip music, art, or even gym. They can only leave campus during lunch and recess. In effect, the district is following the law by allowing “released time” to occur, but they’re limiting which parts of the day students are allowed to miss. Even if this new law gets rid of the two-period cap, it won’t affect this district since students don’t have that much non-graded time anyway.

It’s a brilliant workaround that other districts need to adopt immediately.

What’s happening in Ohio isn’t about “religious freedom.” It’s about destroying public education with legislative loopholes and religious excuses. Ohio Republicans, with the help of many Democrats who still supported this bill after the “Released Time” policies were added to it, have made clear that appeasing evangelicals is more important than protecting schools. They’re helping hollow out the very institution that binds a pluralistic society together. Every minute a student spends off-campus, subject to proselytizing, is a minute stolen from a class where they might actually learn something useful.

The fact that this religious giveaway was shoved into a bill meant to save lives with Narcan is symbolic of how Republicans now operate. They’re so beholden to religious extremists that they’ll smuggle amendments like this one into even the most vital, bipartisan legislation.

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