Thanks for the response, but this isn't data; it's an anecdote, and it doesn't even really deal with the previous claim about prayer/bibles and education.
You could actually test to see if prayer in schools is causally related to a decline in education. But you need data. You would have to demonstrate that there has actually been a decline in education, which you would require you to use some sort of objective measurement (like SAT scores, graduation rates, college admission rates, high school and college GPAs, job placement, etc..) You would also have to show (a) that there was a significant difference between schools with prayer/bibles and schools without and (b) that the lower education in prayer-less/bible-less schools was related to the removal of prayers and bibles. You would also have to control for things like location, demographics, incomes, family education/history, etc.. that might be are more critical variable in education levels. For example, I bet private schools are on average better than public schools due to location, parent involvement, income levels, and family history, among other factors.
It's hard to find studies done previously, but here is one from 2006 by the National Center for Education Statistics:
NAEP Studies - 2006461: Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling
This just looked at all private schools vs all public schools and then specifically at Catholic, Lutheran, and Conservative Christian schools vs public schools by sampling from 4th grade and 8th grade. If your idea about prayer in schools was correct, then you should, as a consequence, expect Catholic, Lutheran, and Conservative Christian schools to outperform public schools. But I will let the data speak for itself:
For reading in grade 4:
IOW, no significant difference.
For math in grade 4:
IOW, there was a statistically significant difference between private Catholic and Lutheran schools and public schools - and it's not good.
For reading in grade 8 :
IOW, though Catholic and Lutheran's scored higher, this wasn't across the board to all Christian schools. Conservative Christian schools scores showed no difference. So it would be difficult to believe that prayer accounted for the Catholic and Lutheran difference. Then again, maybe God was answering only their prayer?!?
For math in grade 8:
So, Catholic private schools performed about the same as public schools, the Lutherans did better, and the Conservative Christian schools did worse.
I believe it's going to be an uphill battle to prove that it's the removal or prayer and bibles that accounts for these differences in education levels.
Anyways, I would encourage reading the entire study - as well as the cautions in interpreting the data.