Last week, in a post titled “In Oregon, Students Are Skipping Math Class to Learn About the Bible,” I wrote about how there was a law in Oregon allowing students to ditch their public school classes for up to five hours a week in order to attend religious indoctrination classes.

In one case, a program called PREP4Kids even provided a shuttle to take kids from Banks Elementary School to Banks Community United Methodist Church.

For whatever reason, PolitiFact Oregon decided that what I wrote was a claim worth checking out — something to be dubbed anywhere from “True” to “Pants on Fire.”

How did it go?

An Oregon law passed in 1965 does let children out of school for weekly religious instruction. Under ORS 339.420, hundreds of students are receiving anywhere from two to five hours of religious instruction a week, depending on their age. We also found that at least some of the students who miss classes for religious study are missing math class, with their parents’ permission. We rate Mehta’s claim True.

Score! Someone make sure that line is in my obituary one day.

If only PolitiFact could run a check on the whole “God’s existence” thing, we’d be in business…



