OAN Staff James Meyers
3:23 PM – Friday, November 22, 2024
Texas’ education board voted Friday to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms.
Advertisement
The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they will receive additional funding if they do so.
Additionally, materials could appear in the classroom as early as next school year.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) has been a proud supporter of the lesson plans, which were provided by the Lonestar State’s agency that oversees the more than five million students in Texas public schools.
Supporters of the new law argued that the Bible is a core feature of American history and that teaching it will increase students’ learning.
The proposed curriculum narrowly cleared a preliminary vote this week at the Texas State Board of Education, whose elected members heard hours of sometimes impassioned pleas from both supporters and critics over the material that schools could begin using next year.
The new Texas curriculum follows Republican-led efforts in neighboring states to give religion more of a presence in public schools.
In Oklahoma, the state’s education chief has ordered a copy of the Bible in every classroom, while Louisiana wants to make all of the state’s public school classrooms post the Ten Commandments beginning next year.
The material draws on lessons from Christianity more than any other religion in the proposed reading and language arts modules for kindergarten through fifth grade, which critics say would isolate students from different religions and may violate the First Amendment.
“This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Children who would read the material, she said, “are simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.”
“It is said that there are close to 300 common-day phrases that actually come from the Bible,” said Mary Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, a right-leaning advocacy group. “So students will benefit from being able to understand a lot of these references that are in literature and have a way to be able to comprehend them.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below
