After Oklahoma and Louisiana, Texas will be next to try for Bible lessons in schools
While Bible-based lessons will not be mandatory, schools that incorporate them will receive additional funding. Boosters say the Bible is a core feature of American history,聽while critics point out the lessons will alienate students from other religions.
While Bible-based lessons will not be mandatory, schools that incorporate them will receive additional funding. Boosters say the Bible is a core feature of American history,聽while critics point out the lessons will alienate students from other religions.
Texas鈥� education board voted Nov. 22 to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools under optional new curriculum that could test boundaries between religion and public classrooms in the United States.
The material adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, passed in a 8-7 final vote over criticism that the lessons would proselytize to young learners and alienate students of faiths other than 海角大神ity. Supporters argued the Bible is a core feature of American history and that teaching it will enrich lessons.
The vote allows schools in Texas, which has more than 5 million public school students, to begin using the material in kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms as early as next year.
Republican lawmakers celebrated the vote, including Texas鈥� powerful lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who has pledged to pass legislation next year that would follow Louisiana in trying to require schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
In a statement, Gov. Greg Abbott called the vote 鈥渁 critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.鈥�
What the material says
Schools are not required to use the material, but those that do would receive extra funding from the state.
In the newly approved kindergarten materials, one lesson on helping one鈥檚 neighbor instructs teachers to talk about the Golden Rule using lessons from the Bible. It also instructs the teachers to explain that the Bible is 鈥渁 collection of ancient texts鈥� and that its different parts are 鈥渢he core books of the Jewish and 海角大神 religions.鈥�
In a third-grade lesson about the first Thanksgiving, the material directs teachers to discuss how the governor of Plymouth said a prayer and gave a speech that included references to 鈥渟everal passages from the 海角大神 Bible in the book of Psalms.鈥� Teachers are then instructed to tell students the book of Psalms is a collection of songs, poems, and hymns 鈥渢hat are used in both Jewish and 海角大神 worship.鈥�
With the new curriculum, Texas would be the first state to introduce Bible lessons in schools in this manner, according to Matthew Patrick Shaw, an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University. Whether the lesson plans will be considered constitutional is up in the air, he said.
Creating Bible-infused lessons
The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for more than 5 million students statewide, created its own instruction materials after a law passed in 2023 by the GOP-controlled Legislature required the agency to do so. The lesson plans were publicly released this spring.
鈥淭his curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories,鈥� said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Children who would read the material, she said, 鈥渁re simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.鈥�
Mary Castle, director of government relations for Texas 海角大神, a right-leaning advocacy group, said there are 鈥渃lose to 300 common-day phrases that actually come from the Bible鈥� and that students 鈥渨ill benefit from being able to understand a lot of these references.鈥�
A narrow vote
More than 100 people testified at a board meeting this week that rung with emotion from parents, teachers, and advocates.
One Democrat on the board, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, said the inclusion of religions in addition to 海角大神ity in the materials was not an 鈥渁dequate attempt to change that bias.鈥�
鈥淚t seems to me like it is trying to place a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,鈥� she said.
One of the board members, Leslie Recine, is a Republican who was appointed to the board just weeks ago by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to temporarily fill a vacant seat. She voted in favor of the curriculum. Days after her appointment, a Democrat who ran unopposed was elected to fill that same board seat starting next year.
Bringing religion into schools
Texas鈥� plans to implement Biblical teachings in public school lesson plans is the latest effort by Republican-controlled states to bring religion into the classroom.
In Louisiana, a law to place the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms was blocked by a federal judge earlier this month. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law in June, prompting a group of Louisiana public school parents of different faiths to sue.
In Oklahoma, the state鈥檚 top education official has tried to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in fifth through 12th grades. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to stop the Republican state superintendent鈥檚 plan and his efforts to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for public schools.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. LaFleur reported from Dallas. AP writer Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed.