Religion, public schools, and hyper-pluralism: Is there a new religious war?

For the past decade, members of the public educational community have calle d attention to threats to public schooling and to a pluralist democracy fro m religious conservatives. This article reviews recent empirical and theore tical research on religious conservatives, suggesting that they form a grou p that is very large and not necessarily Christian and which may be conside rably less monolithic, less extreme less politically active, and less conse rvative than previously thought. The article explores holy the educational reform movement's focus on curriculum standards, academic rigor and a large r role for the state may befalling to connect with religious communities th at place greater value on instruction in morality, strong interpersonal rel ations and an ethos of individual responsibility.