In Altman v. Bedford Central School District, 245 F.3d 49 (2d Cir.2001), the plaintiffs challenged a fourth-grade class's reading of the Hindu story of Ganesha, an art class's construction of worry dolls, one school's Earth Day festivities, a teacher's use of a "Listening to Nature" tape in classroom instruction, and several other isolated school programs or activities. 245 F.3d at 57-63. In other words, the taxpayers challenged not the operation of the schools themselves, but the spiritual nature of certain programs within the schools' curricula. The schools themselves were public schools whose curriculum was state-regulated. The Second Circuit reviewed the plaintiffs' challenges to each activity and analyzed as to each whether a measurable amount of public funding had been dedicated to that activity: "What was required for the establishment of taxpayer standing to complain ofthese activities ... was a showing of a measurable appropriation or loss of revenue attributable to the challenged activities at those schools." Id. at 74. The court rejected taxpayer standing as a basis for each of the specific challenges. Id. In Altman v. Bedford Cent. Sch. Dist., 245 F.3d 49, 75 (2d Cir.2001), plaintiffs asserted that a public school Earth Day celebration placed a substantial burden on the practice of the core religious beliefs of Catholicism in that a faculty member's "criticism of overpopulation of the Earth" could reasonably be construed to advocate birth control. Id. at 80. In rejecting this argument, the Court observed that "the mere evidence that plaintiffs found that remark and perhaps some other aspects of the ceremonies offensive to their beliefs ... did not suffice to prove a free exercise violation, for the court made no finding that students were required to participate in the Earth Day ceremonies." Id.