Hon. Bill Lockyer
Attorney General
1300 I Street, 17th Floor
Sacramento, California 95814
Attention: Ms. Connie Lemus
Initiative Coordinator
This letter contains our review of the fiscal effect of proposed initiative file number SA1999RF0021, called "The Prayer in School Initiative" as required by Elections Code Section 9005.
Proposal
This measure provides, in the State Constitution, that students are allowed to voluntarily practice prayer while on public school property before, during, and/or after school hours. The measure requires public schools to provide at least one minute at the start of each school day for students to pray or not to pray. In addition, schools would be required to give students the opportunity to recite the pledge of allegiance at the start of each school day, with the word "God" included as part of the pledge. The measure also grants students the right to form and actively participate in religious clubs on school property, and to use the Bible for school assignments. Finally, the measure requires that its several provisions be made available to the public for review and published in "school handbooks."
Fiscal Effect
If this measure were enacted, public schools would incur some minor, primarily one-time costs to make information available to the public. These costs probably could be absorbed within existing school budgets.