On campus, the church-state divide can be the bell that signals the taxpayer-funded lessons are over and it’s time for the religious after-school program.

In the first-floor classrooms of a refurbished historical schoolhouse in Houston’s Third Ward, kindergarten-through-5th-graders pray before going to lunch and gather each day for Bible study. A large, green banner saying “He Is Risen” is posted on the hallway wall.

That all changes in sixth grade, when they move one floor up — and into a publicly funded charter school.