LANSING, MI – Michigan students would start the day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance under a bill debated by the state House Education Committee.

The bill, sponsored by State Rep. Kevin Cotter, R- Mt. Pleasant, also requires an American flag be displayed in each classroom.

HB 4934 is similar to a bill that cleared the state Senate in November, and committee Chairwoman Lisa Posthumous Lyons, R-Alto, said a substitute expected to be voted on next week will have elements of both.

Cotter said his bill makes in mandatory for schools to offer the pledge, but that it would not be mandatory for students to recite it.

State Rep. Lisa Brown, D-Bloomfield Hills, asked whether Cotter had heard complaints that the pledge was not being offered to students.

“I was really surprised – I should say shocked – to learn that was not the case,” Cotter said. “I was a student in public schools myself and we did recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I just took it to be just the way that it was. But I have learned recently that oftentimes, that is not the case. I’ve had many people approach me on this issue, and it is not the practice.”

State Rep. Doug Geiss, D-Taylor, said there is a perception that schools had moved away from the practice, but he was pleased to see that schools in his district recite the pledge.

"I was pleased to see that. My son came home and just, off the cuff, started reciting the Pledge of Allegiance," he said.



State Sen. Roger Khan, R-Saginaw, said in the fall that Michigan is one of seven states without a law mandating the pledge be recited each day.

