Lawmaker wants Lord's Prayer in schools

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A Republican state senator is pushing for Indiana's public school students to start the school day by reciting the Lord's Prayer.

Senate education committee chairman Dennis Kruse of Auburn has filed legislation that would let school districts require the prayer to be recited, but would also grant broad exemptions.

The measure might have little chance of winning approval since the Senate's leader has assigned it to the rules committee, which rarely advances bills. But it's part of a broader push by Kruse and other lawmakers to put religion in Indiana's public schools.

Kruse sponsored a bill last year seeking to allow schools to teach creationism, the belief that life was created as described in the Bible. This year, he's seeking to allow questioning by teachers of scientific principles like evolution.