Texas school panel follows Oklahoma in okaying plan to infuse Bible in curriculum
Vote was 8-7 for proposal applying to elementary-age schoolchildren
As Christian nationalism gains political influence, Texas yesterday become the second U.S. state to establish a program to infuse the Bible into everyday education in public schools. The plan was approved by the narrowest of votes: The Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education adopted on an 8-7 vote a plan to encourage schools in grades kindergarten through five to use curricular materials that include various Bible passages such as the Sermon on the Mount and the 23rd Psalm.
Local school districts would not be required to adopt the curricular material but would receive a $60 annual financial incentive for doing so.
Like a Bible curriculum plan introduced in Oklahoma, the Texas plan will almost certainly be tied up in court for the foreseeable future.1
All eight who voted for the plan are Republicans; those voting no included four Democrats and three Republicans. The plan had the support of the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, a Republican.
Support and opposition to the plan fell along the expected fault lines:
The First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based religious liberty organization often involved with national issues, praised the decision:
Supreme Court precedent has repeatedly confirmed that the Bible is appropriate for instruction in history, literature, poetry, music, art, government, social customs, values, and behavioral sciences. We fully support the Texas State Board of Education’s decision.
Among the opponents of the plan was the South Asians for Voter Empowerment of Texas, which said that the plan marginalizes the state’s minority communities, especially those from non-Christian religions such as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.
SaaveTX also said:
The proposed curriculum is riddled with inaccuracies, disproportionately focuses on Christianity, and disregards the contributions of other faiths and cultures to our shared history.
A teachers’ union, the Texas American Federation of Teachers, also opposed the proposed curriculum:
Texas AFT believes that not only do these materials violate the separation of church and state and the academic freedom of our classroom, but also the sanctity of the teaching profession.
There is no way to know how the Texas plan will fare in the courts. In the best-known court case regarding the teaching of the Bible in public schools, and the one usually cited as a precedent, Abington School District v. Schempp, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963 found unconstitutional state laws providing for daily Bible readings in class. However, the court also said:
It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.
In other words, the high court has never excluded the Bible from public-school classrooms, and it is not unusual at all for portions to be used in lessons pertaining to history, culture and the arts. A lesson about the role of the Rev. Martin Luther King in the civil-rights movement may, for example, include his use of Amos 5:242 in his “I Have a Dream” speech. And it is common for public-school choirs to perform works such as the Handel’s Messiah, which is based in part on the book of Isaiah.
Supporters of the Texas plan claim that it falls within what the high court has permitted, while opponents say that it fails to meet the Supreme Court test of religious neutrality.
Certainly, as the Texas government and opponents of the plan face off in court, the main argument will be whether the Texas plan has a secular purpose or whether it aims to promote religious belief.
There are similarities and differences between the Texas and Oklahoma plans. Most notably, the Texas plan is the brainchild of the state school superintendent and hasn’t been subject the vote of a public board. Also, the Oklahoma plan takes the form of a general mandate, while the Texas plan involves the use of specific curricular materials. The Oklahoma plan applies to all school districts for students in fifth through the 12th grades.
Some news accounts have listed Louisiana as a state that has a Bible program for public schools, although the law in Louisiana involves the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms rather than the use of the Bible as part of the curriculum.
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”