Texas’ board of education has voted to permit Bible-infused lessons in elementary schools as an optional curriculum for teachers, a decision that faces much backlash as it stands to merge the Christian religion with public classrooms, which many argue threatens the inclusive conditions that are meant to be intended within the US education system.
With the new material that the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, has adopted, schools in the state will be allowed to begin using the material in kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms as early as next year.
The board passed the decision in a 7-8 final vote on Friday, with opposing members criticizing the material, saying it would proselytize young learners and isolate students who don’t follow the Christian faith. Before it was passed, more than 100 people, including parents, teachers, and advocates, vehemently testified at a board meeting this week.
Rebecca Bell-Metereau, one of the Democrats on the board, said the inclusion of religions in addition to Christianity in the materials was not an “adequate attempt to change that bias,” AP reported.
“It seems to me like it is trying to place a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” she said.
The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for more than 5 million students statewide, established its own instruction materials after the GOP-controlled Legislature passed a law requiring the agency to do so in 2023. The lesson plans were publicly released this spring.
“This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories,” Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, told AP. She said that the children who would read the material “are simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.”
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers, including Texas’ lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who has a large public following, and has pledged to pass legislation next year that would follow Louisiana in trying to require schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, celebrated the vote.
In a statement, Gov. Greg Abbott called the vote “a critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.”
The vote of Texas’ school board to implement bible teachings in public schools comes amid a widespread effort of Republican-controlled states to bring the Christian religion into the classroom. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed a bill into law this June requiring the Ten Commandments to be placed in all public classrooms, which was met with litigation from a group of public school parents of varying faiths. Earlier this month, the law was blocked by a federal judge.
