Texas
Texas education leaders unveil Bible-infused elementary school curriculum
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Elementary school curriculum proposed this week would infuse new state reading and language arts lessons with teachings on the Bible, marking the latest push by Texas Republicans to put more Christianity in public schools.
The Texas Education Agency released the thousands of pages of educational materials this week. They have been made available for public viewing and feedback and, if approved by the State Board of Education in November, will be available for public schools to roll out in August of 2025. Districts will have the option of whether to use the materials, but will be incentivized to do so with up to $60 per student in additional funding.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said the materials are based on extensive cognitive science research and will help improve students’ reading and math scores. In 2019, less than half of students met grade-level standards for reading, and that percentage has declined since the pandemic, based on state standardized test scores.
The new materials have prompted criticism, though. The education news site The 74 first reported the redesign on Wednesday and included excerpts of lesson plans with biblical references. They also reported that a New York-based curriculum vendor, Amplify, opted out of bidding on a contract after the state sought to insert biblical materials, but not other religious texts, into the curriculum. The state education agency rejected those claims, saying multiple religions are included throughout the curriculum. Because of Texas’ size, textbooks that are developed for its schools are often used in other states.
Morath told The Texas Tribune on Thursday that religious materials are a “small piece of the content pie.” His office could not quantify what percentage of each grade’s textbook would be devoted to biblical references. The Tribune has not reviewed all materials, which include the state-designed textbooks as well as proposals from 25 different vendors.
But an initial review of the proposed state textbooks show that religious materials feature prominently, with texts sourced from the Bible as the most heavily used.
“It’s a tiny fraction of the overall fraction — it’s just where it makes sense to do that,” Morath said. “It’s a very small but appropriate fraction.”
The textbooks mark a shift toward a “classical, broad-based liberal arts education,” from a more skills-based curriculum, Morath said.
“You’re trying to build vocabulary, build background knowledge so that when kids are reading Steinbeck in high school, they get the references,” Morath said.
The instructional materials were unveiled amid a broader movement by Republicans to further infuse conservative Christianity into public life. At last week’s Texas GOP convention — which was replete with calls for “spiritual warfare” against their political opponents — delegates voted on a new platform that calls on lawmakers and the SBOE to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance.”
Throughout the three-day convention, Republican leaders and attendees frequently claimed that Democrats sought to indoctrinate schoolchildren as part of a war on Christianity. SBOE Chair Aaron Kinsey, of Midland, echoed those claims in a speech to delegates, promising to use his position to advance Republican beliefs and oppose Critical Race Theory, “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives or “whatever acronym the left comes up with next.”
“You have a chairman,” Kinsey said, “who will fight for these three-letter words: G-O-D, G-O-P and U-S-A.”
Mark Chancey, a Southern Methodist University religious studies professor who focuses on movements to put the Bible in public schools, said there is “nothing inherently inappropriate” with teaching the Bible or other religious texts, so long as it’s done neutrally. But he’s concerned by some of the proposed curriculum, including lessons that he said seem to treat biblical stories as “straightforward historical accounts.”
“It serves a civic good for students to be taught about religion,” he said. “But that’s different from giving students religious instruction. The question is going to be whether these materials teach about religion, or whether they cross the line into giving religious instruction.”
For example: The curriculum promotes lessons on Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” alongside the Gospel of Matthew, which centers on Jesus’ crucifixion and its atonement for human sin. “These are very strong, central claims of Christian theology,” Chancey said. “And students will have questions about that. How are teachers supposed to respond to those questions?”
It’s not unforeseeable, he said, for those conversations to lead to even thornier areas that are still divisive even among Christians.
If the state education board approves the materials in November, schools will not be required to use them. But a measure approved by lawmakers last year will offer more money to public school districts that do choose to adopt any of the materials.
Some of that content includes a first grade lesson stating the Liberty Bell “reminded [the Founding Fathers] of how God helped free the Hebrew people in the Bible” as well as a fifth grade poetry lessons on “A Psalm of David,” described as “one of the most popular poems ever written.”
Other religions are also included. A second grade lesson highlights the Jewish celebration of Purim. A fourth grade poetry unit includes Kshemendra, a poet from India who “studied Buddhism and Hinduism.”
Some State Board of Education members told the Tribune they had not yet read through the materials and would decide whether or not to approve the content based on standards they’ve already established.
Keven Ellis, a Republican state school board member who lives in Lufkin, said the role of the board is to make sure the materials are appropriate for each grade-level and that they align with the state’s curriculum standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
“My focus will remain on approving instructional materials that improve outcomes in phonics, language arts and math,” Ellis said.
State curriculum guidelines spell out that “the instructional material should recognize and not contradict that parents have the right to ‘direct the moral and religious training’ of their children and the duty to support their children’s education.’” Ellis did not respond to inquiries about the religious material.
Staci Childs, a Houston Democrat who sits on the SBOE, said she believes it’s okay to include Biblical references as long as other religions are also introduced to students.
“As a Christian, I think it is okay [to teach the Bible] as long as you’re normalizing the introduction of all religions and all types of mythologies so students have a varied and robust and true depiction of the materials in the text of our past,” Childs said. “To only infuse Bible verses and teachings of the Bible is completely insensitive to all the different types of students we have in Texas and a disrespect to the faiths they may acknowledge.”
Last year, the state directed the TEA to create its own textbooks when the Legislature passed House Bill 1605. Lawmakers said the purpose of the policy was to give teachers access to high-quality instructional materials.
A teacher vacancy task force that had convened in 2022 found that teachers spend significant time creating and looking for lesson plans. Lawmakers said the new state textbooks will save teachers time.
In an op-ed published in the Dallas Morning News this week, state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, and state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said the new materials “will provide much needed relief to teachers by eliminating the need to spend dozens of hours outside of the classroom developing curriculum.”
Morath said the materials are designed for Texas students, with references to the state’s geography and industries, as well as Texas-based historical figures like Clara Driscoll, known for her historic preservation work rescuing the Alamo from destruction, decades after the pivotal battle at the former Catholic mission in San Antonio.
“We’ve tried to make it as tightly based on the needs of Texas students as possible,” Morath said.
Soon after the materials were released on Wednesday morning, Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement saying he supported the curriculum.
“The materials will also allow our students to better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature, and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Revolution,” Abbott said in a statement.
When asked directly if Abbott had any role in developing the new content, Morath answered: “I’m not sure any. This was entirely a project of TEA.” Morath added that the governor is keenly attentive to the subject of public education.
“The governor has been very interested in getting back to fundamentals of education for a long time,” Morath said, “and so this is some of the lens that we think about, but he’s not alone in that perspective.”
Before HB 1605’s passage, the Texas Education Agency was creating new instructional materials in order to help improve students’ reading and math scores. Those materials were piloted in about 400 districts, a TEA spokesperson said. Some had full-scale, district-wide implementation while others tested the materials in a few grade levels.
Morath cited pilot studies in districts like Temple and Lubbock, where students’ reading scores increased by as much as 16 points after adopting the newer reading and language arts program.
About 300 people, most of whom are educators, are reviewing all of the instructional materials and will present their feedback to the State Board of Education. TEA did not provide a list of the reviewers but said they were selected by the SBOE.
Members of the public can also weigh in and offer feedback on the materials until August 16 and from there, the materials will go before the state board in November for final approval. If approved, the materials will immediately be available for download.
Chancey, the Southern Methodist University religion professor, said teaching the Bible in any public setting immediately prompts a variety of complicated questions. First among them: Which of the many Bible translations should be used? “The choice of translation brought into the public school has at times proven controversial,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chancey said, the proposed instructions on religious liberty in the original colonies seem to be a “tremendous oversimplification,” failing to note the persecution faced by other religious groups, namely Quakers and early Baptists. Omitting that, he said, misses the real lesson to be learned from studying America’s early settlers: “The dangers of religious favoritism.”
The proposed state textbook calls for excerpts of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” to be paired with the Biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, whose defiance of the Babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar is cited by King as an example of civil disobedience. And yet, the proposed curriculum does not appear to include any excerpts on the intended audience or a core theme of King’s letter: White moderates and clergy, whom King chastised for critiquing his civil disobedience while remaining “silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.”
Morath said the excerpt chosen is the one that would be appropriate for a fifth grader, based on their vocabulary and knowledge-level.
“We would expect students to return to it in deeper and deeper ways,” Morath said. “You have to give him bits of knowledge that build on prior bits of knowledge, and you’re steadily giving them more and more and more exposure.”
This instructional redesign for public schools comes amid an ongoing embrace on the right of Christian nationalism, which claims that the United States founding was ordained by God, and that its laws and institutions should thus favor their conservative, Christian views. Recent polling from the Public Religion Research Institute found that more than half of Republicans adhere to or sympathize with pillars of Christian nationalism, including beliefs that the U.S. should be a strictly Christian nation. Of those respondents, PRRI found, roughly half supported having an authoritarian leader who maintains Christian dominance in society.
Southern Methodist University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Texas
Dan Patrick laments Texas not enacting Ten Commandments law first
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AUSTIN (KXAN) — This week Louisiana became the first state in the country to require schools to display the Ten Commandments in their classrooms, which struck a nerve with one prominent Republican in Texas.
On his personal X account, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick posted a screenshot Thursday of a headline noting this milestone for Texas’ neighbor, and he expressed his disappointment in a similar proposal failing to become law here in the state.
“Texas WOULD have been and SHOULD have been the first state in the nation to put the 10 Commandments back in our schools,” Patrick wrote on X.
The Texas Senate approved Senate Bill 1515 along a party-line vote on April 20 last year during the regular legislative session. The legislation, which was introduced by Texas Sen. Phil King of Weatherford, would have made public K-12 schools put up “a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments” in a “conspicuous place in each classroom.” The bill required the display to be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall, and the text would have to be “in a size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.”
Members of the public education committee in the Texas House of Representatives advanced the legislation at a May 16, 2023, hearing. However, the full House never took up SB 1515 last year, so the proposal did not advance any further.
In his X posts Thursday, Patrick used that to once again excoriate Speaker Dade Phelan, who won a primary runoff last month against a challenger backed by the lieutenant governor and former President Donald Trump.
“Every Texas Republican House member would have voted for it. But, SPEAKER Dade Phelan killed the bill by letting it languish in committee for a month assuring it would never have time for a vote on the floor,” Patrick wrote. “This was inexcusable and unacceptable. Putting the Ten Commandments back into our schools was obviously not a priority for Dade Phelan.”
Patrick also said this legislation is needed to “remind students all across Texas of the importance of a fundamental foundation of American and Texas law: the Ten Commandments.” He ended his X post with this promise: “I will pass the 10 Commandments Bill again out of the Senate next session.”
Texas does have a red granite monument listing the Ten Commandments displayed on the Capitol grounds in Austin. According to the Texas State Preservation Board, this was erected in 1961 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles of Texas.
Louisiana’s law, which Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed earlier this week, differs slightly from the proposal debated last year in Texas. For one the size of the displays in Louisiana must be 11 inches by 14 inches. It also applies to more than just K-12 classrooms in public schools. State-funded universities and colleges in the Pelican State must also display a poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” next year.
Civil liberties groups are already planning to file lawsuits to block the law from taking effect in Louisiana, arguing it’s unconstitutional. However, Gov. Landry along with the state’s Republican attorney general said they would look forward to defending the law in court.
Texas
ACLU Texas, students send letters to UT in response to disciplinary notices for protesters
![ACLU Texas, students send letters to UT in response to disciplinary notices for protesters](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/04/29/NAAS/73504057007-aem-042924-ut-protest-7407225.jpg?auto=webp&crop=2877,1618,x0,y235&format=pjpg&width=1200)
The ACLU of Texas has sent a letter to University of Texas President Jay Hartzell expressing its fear that the university “may be squelching the First Amendment rights of its students” and chilling protected expression by investigating the conduct of some students who were arrested at pro-Palestinian protests April 24 and 29 on campus.
UT first initiated disciplinary proceedings June 7 for alleged rule violations by some student protesters, the American-Statesman previously reported. The letters included copies of arrest affidavits, pictures from the protests and Instagram posts about the demonstrations.
As part of the university’s letter, students were asked to prepare a written statement in response to 12 questions about their conduct that the American Civil Liberties Union said “presupposes that students receiving these notices violated University policy and ignores that the First Amendment protects peaceful protest.”
The ACLU also pointed to its concern about UT citing the probable cause affidavits as evidence, alleging that it violates students’ due process, as charges against all the protesters who were arrested April 24 were dismissed, and individuals “cannot be held responsible for the actions of a group simply because they participated in free speech activity.” It alleges that students are being punished indiscriminately for their involvement in the protests instead of any individual violations.
UT spokesperson Mike Rosen said in a June 14 email in regard to a second round of disciplinary notices the university issued that students were not being disciplined for protesting, but for violating university rules.
“UT Austin supports the rights of all members of our community to demonstrate and express their views while on our campus as long as they comply with our Institutional Rules,” he wrote.
Savannah Kumar, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said the organization sent UT the letter out of fear that the university’s investigations would violate the protesters’ rights and chill free speech.
“When participating in protest is placed under such scrutiny and when students are put through these investigations, it suffocates the breathing room for our constitutional rights and can also erode the core tenets of the university too,” Kumar said. “That’s why we were concerned about what we’re seeing.”
Students reject accusations of rule violations
Police arrested a total of 136 people at the two protests, including 60 students. Many have criticized the police response as excessive and escalatory, but Hartzell, Gov. Greg Abbott and UT System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife praised the significant police action as necessary and effective in keeping the campus safe.
The UT protests were held in solidarity with other demonstrations across the nation that called on universities to divest from weapons manufacturers contributing to Israel’s war against Hamas, which has reportedly resulted in more than 34,000 deaths in Gaza. Israel began bombarding Gaza after Hamas, the region’s militant governing body, attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people.
The ACLU’s letter follows a collective letter that UT students sent to the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in response to the disciplinary notices, which alleged that students failed to comply with university rules and engaged in disruptive conduct. The students in their nine-page letter deny the university’s accusations and express fear that the process will be biased against them.
“We object to the accusation that our engagement in protected free speech activity is ‘disruptive’ to the university’s function,” the students’ letter said. “Indeed, we resolutely affirm the opposite: by exercising our basic rights to speech and peaceable assembly, we were, in fact, directly carrying out a daily function of the University.”
The collective letter cites past statements from the university and Hartzell supporting free speech, and it asks for all students to receive a no findings letter instead of an administrative disposition.
“We ask that you consider this and treat us with the compassion and understanding we deserve as students, Longhorns, and members of a democratic society,” the students’ letter said.
Sam Law, a UT graduate student who was arrested April 29 and received a disciplinary letter, said 23 students are planning to submit the letter to the university. He said people are also submitting character references and letters of support.
“The university hasn’t told us what the possible disciplinary consequences are, but a lot of us are deeply afraid that it could be suspensions or expulsions,” Law said, adding that that’s why many people decided to respond despite legal concerns with addressing allegations. “That is a much more severe consequence than a legal consequence.”
The students also mention concern over the process bypassing a typically scheduled in-person meeting in favor of written statements, which they worry will further reduce their right to due process. Rosen said previously in his June 14 email that the process ensures all students have due process.
Two teaching assistants who were removed from their position last fall for sending a pro-Palestinian message to their class did not have the opportunity for an in-person hearing because of a last-minute policy change by Hartzell to make the process more efficient. Their grievances for their job reassignments were eventually denied.
‘We enforce our institutional rules’
Rosen said the university cannot comment on individual cases, but on June 14 an undisclosed number of disciplinary notices were sent out to student protesters for alleged rules violations.
“The University has made clear that we enforce our institutional rules, and the conduct notices sent to students who violated our rules during protests on April 24 and 29 reflect that commitment,” the university’s statement said.
Kumar, however, said the university’s rules still need to leave “breathing space for the Constitution.”
“The university can’t just be invoking these rules and saying that if students broke these rules that’s enough to punish them if that application of those rules is squelching the right to engage in free speech activities, which is not something that students leave behind just because they decide to enroll,” Kumar said.
Rosen did not respond to the Statesman’s specific questions about UT’s response to the ACLU’s and students’ letters.
Law said protesters believe they are not guilty of the university’s accusations and are grateful for the ACLU’s support.
“I hope that the university takes it seriously and lives up to the principles that it purports to defend,” Law said.
Texas
Texas QB Commit KJ Lacey Opens Up About Official Visit Plans, Arch Manning Connection
![Texas QB Commit KJ Lacey Opens Up About Official Visit Plans, Arch Manning Connection](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1024,h_576,x_0,y_107/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/longhorns_country/01j0t7symvmjbyy0wtjm.jpg)
LOS ANGELES, CA – Texas Longhorns quarterback commit KJ Lacey just wrapped up an impressive showing at the 2024 Elite 11 Finals in Los Angeles and was in the thick of the race for the coveted MVP Award all week.
However, with the event now over, Lacey turns his attention toward a trip to Austin for this official visit to the 40 Acres, where he is set to be hosted by none other than Texas backup QB Arch Manning.
On Thursday in a one-on-one interview with Longhorns Country, Lacey opened up about his plans of his upcoming visit, as well as his growing relationship with Manning.
“Just have fun while I’m out there and get to know the coaches even better,” Lacey said. “I think Arch (Manning) will be the host for my (official visit), so I want to get to know Arch a little bit more, and why he chose Texas… We have a pretty good relationship. We talk here and there. Every time I go up there I ask him a lot of questions.”
Lacey won’t be the only big-time recruit visiting Austin this weekend either, with the Saraland (AL) four-star QB set to be joined by a star-studded group of prospects, headlined by the five-star receiver duo of Jaime Ffrench and Kaliq Lockett.
And for Lacey, one of the main priorities on his official visit will be to show Ffrench and Lockett exactly why Texas is home.
“It’ll be Jaime Ffrench’s I think second time back to Austin, so just let him have the best time of his life while he’s out there, let him know what’s home, and get him locked in,” Lacey said on Thursday. “Also with Kaliq, I’m not sure how many times he’s been there but he’s from Texas, so I’m pretty sure he’s been a few times. I think those are the main two targets for me just on the receiver side right there that I want to get at.”
In fact, Lacey already got to spend some time with Ffrench this week, as the Mandarin (Jacksonville, FL) five-star took part in Day 1 of the Elite 11 Finals on Tuesday, and spending some time with the other prospects on the sidelines on Wednesday.
Lacey, of course, did his best to take advantage of that chance, sharing a significant amount of reps with Ffrench on Day 1 in particular.
Now, heading into the O.V., Lacey wants to improve that connection even more.
“The connection has been there for a while,” Lacey said. “I met him at Future 50 last year, and the one-on-one’s he did pretty good out there. He was on the opposite team from me on the 7-on-7… All the way around I feel like our connection is really strong and it’s going to be there for a long time. He’s really fast and his hands are just different. His IQ is also up there, He’s also outgoing. He’s a really nice guy.”
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