AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas State Board of Education voted Friday to allow elementary schools to incorporate Bible instruction under a voluntary new curriculum that could test the boundaries between religion and public classrooms in the United States.
The materials adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, have led to criticism that the lessons encourage proselytism among young learners and alienate students of non-Christian faiths. It passed with a final vote of 8-7. Supporters argued that the Bible is central to American history and that teaching it enriches the lessons.
The vote would allow schools in Texas, which serves more than 5 million public school students, to begin using the materials in kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms as early as next year.
Republican lawmakers celebrated the vote, including Texas’ powerful lieutenant governor, who vowed to follow Louisiana’s lead and pass legislation next year requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
Texas’ approval is “an important step toward improving student outcomes across the state,” Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick posted on social media.
Schools are not required to use the materials, but those that do will receive additional funding from the state.
In newly approved kindergarten materials, one lesson on helping your neighbor instructs teachers to use a Bible lesson to talk about the Golden Rule. It also instructs teachers to explain that the Bible is a “collection of ancient texts” and its various parts are “the core book of the Judeo-Christian religions.”
This material teaches teachers about how Governor Plymouth prayed and gave a speech that included references to “several passages from the Psalms of the Christian Bible” in a third-grade class on the first Thanksgiving. I’m asking you to talk. Teachers are then instructed to tell students that the Psalms are a collection of songs, poems, and hymns “used in both Jewish and Christian worship.”
Matthew Patrick Shaw, assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, said the new curriculum will make Texas the first state to introduce Bible lessons in schools in this way. He said it’s unclear whether the lesson plan would be considered constitutional.
The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for more than 5 million students across the state, will be closed in 2023 after a law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature required the agency to do so. , created its own instructional materials. The lesson plans were released this spring.
“This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject-appropriate in terms of presenting Biblical stories,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the United Baptist Committee for Religious Freedom.
Children who read this material “just don’t know the difference between what is a claim of faith and what is fact,” she says.
“There are nearly 300 everyday phrases that actually come from the Bible,” said Mary Castle, director of government relations for the right-wing advocacy group Texas Values. I will receive it,” he said. These references. ”
More than 100 people testified at this week’s board meeting, with emotional voices from parents, teachers and supporters.
Rebecca Vermetlow, one of the board’s Democrats, said including religion in addition to Christianity in the materials was not an “appropriate attempt to change prejudice.”
“It seems like we’re trying to put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” she says.
One board member, Leslie Lecine, a Republican, was appointed to the board several weeks ago by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott to temporarily fill a vacancy. She voted in favor of the curriculum. Days after her appointment, a Democrat who ran unopposed was elected to the same board seat starting next year.
Texas’ plan to incorporate Bible teachings into public school lesson plans is the latest effort by the Republican-controlled state to bring religion into the classroom.
Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a law in Louisiana that would have placed the Ten Commandments in every public classroom. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill in June, prompting a lawsuit by parents of different faiths in Louisiana public schools.
In Oklahoma, the state’s top education official is working to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in grades 5 through 12. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to block the Republican state superintendent’s plan and effort to spend $3 million to buy Bibles for public schools.
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