Texas
Texas education officials to vote on use of Bible in public school curriculum
Texas education officials are expected to hold a vote on Monday on the use of Bible readings in the public school curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade English and language arts classes.
The board listened to hours of testimonies from those for and against “Bluebonnet learning”, a new curriculum that will affect millions of the state’s elementary public school students.
Those in favor of a Bible-infused curriculum argue that the holy book contextualizes material about famous artworks or texts like Leonardo da Vinci’s mural painting The Last Supper and Dr Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Specifically, as the New York Times notes, The Last Supper would be taught to fifth-grade students through an account of the final meal shared by Jesus and his 12 disciples. The lesson would also involve several verses from the Gospel of Matthew.
In the instance of King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, King uses biblical characters in his letter to clergymen around the south. Advocates for this curriculum argue that students would need biblical context to comprehend the letter.
The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog organization which advocates for religious freedom, individual liberties and public education, opposes the curriculum on the grounds that it is biased towards one religion, Christianity.
Carisa Lopez, deputy director of Texas Freedom Network, spoke out against the curriculum during a hearing in September, saying: “Teaching about the influence of religion in history and culture is an important part of a well-rounded education, but you can’t turn public schools into Sunday schools. This is fundamentally a question of respect for religious freedom. Public schools can’t favor one particular religion and promote religious beliefs many students and their families simply don’t share.”
The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest teacher’s union in the country, said in a statement ahead of the vote that it believed this curriculum “violate[s] the separation of church and state and the academic freedom of our classroom” and “the sanctity of the teaching profession”.
David R Brockman, a Christian theologian and religious studies scholar who reviewed the curriculum, told the Times that while he has “long been an advocate of teaching about religion in public schools”, he believes lessons should be factual, balanced and not promote one religion over another. He emphasized to the outlet that the Texas curriculum did not adhere to those tenets.
While the curriculum would not be mandatory if approved by the board, schools would be financially incentivized to adopt the new religious-leaning curriculum, receiving roughly $60 per student from the state.
The US constitution prevents public schools from promoting or advancing any particular religion, but states like Texas are part of a growing trend of conservative Christian ideology in public school classrooms.
Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Ryan Walters, announced earlier this year that all schools were required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments. Around the same time, Louisiana became the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.
Texas was also notably the first state to allow public schools to hire religious chaplains as school counselors.
This movement will likely see support from the upcoming administration of the president-elect, Donald Trump, who in addition to calling for the shuttering of the federal department of education, has vowed to bring prayer back in schools.
If approved, districts could begin using the curriculum by August 2025.
The Texas A&M Aggies’ season ended in bitter disappointment on Friday, falling to the USC Trojans 35-31 and blowing a 17-point lead in the second half.
If the story of collapsing down the stretch sounds familiar, then it should, because that’s basically the story of the Aggies’ 2024 season.
It feels like a lifetime ago now, but the Aggies entered November ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll with a 7-1 record, having just beaten the LSU Tigers 38-23 at home in a pivotal SEC game. They were all alone atop the SEC standings with a 5-0 record in conference play, and essentially controlled their destiny in the College Football Playoff race.
Then the collapse began, as A&M went 1-3 in its final four regular season games. First came a 44-20 drubbing against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Nov. 2, then a 43-41 heartbreaker in four overtimes against the Auburn Tigers on Nov. 23, and finally a 17-7 dud where the offense could do nothing against the Texas Longhorns on Nov. 30. A&M’s lone win in this stretch came on Nov. 16 against the New Mexico State Aggies, a Conference USA team that finished the season 3-9.
Now with the loss to USC, A&M’s late-season collapse is now complete. The worst part? This is nothing new.
There have been far too many instances in recent history, particularly during the Kevin Sumlin era, of the Aggies starting a season hot and utterly falling apart by the end. In 2014 and 2015, they started 5-0 and finished 8-5. In 2016, they started 6-0 and finished 8-5. Last year, they started 4-1 and finished 7-6. You get the idea by now.
First-year head coach Mike Elko showed promise this season but ended up falling into the same trap as his predecessors. Going forward, he knows he must do a better job of finishing, both individual games and the season as a whole.
“We are just not good enough right now,” Elko said. “The challenge is, when we get back here in January, everything has to get turned up. We are now where we need to be from a cultural standpoint. Now we have to become a good football program. That is the next step that we have to take.”
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At least two people have died and six more are injured after several tornadoes touched down in Texas and Mississippi, damaging homes and flipping vehicles.
HOUSTON (AP) — At least two people were killed and six more injured as several tornadoes touched down in Texas and Mississippi on Saturday, damaging homes and flipping vehicles.
One person died in the Liverpool area, located south of Houston, and four people suffered injuries that weren’t considered critical, said Madison Polston, spokesperson for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.
Polston said there were “multiple touchdown points” in the county between Liverpool and Hillcrest Village and Alvin. She said that so far officials knew of around 10 damaged homes but were still working to determine the extent of the damage.
In Mississippi, one person died in Adams County and two people were injured in Franklin County, according to a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
“These storms are probably going to get a lot worse this evening and overnight the further east you go,” said Josh Lichter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
It appeared that at least six tornadoes touched down in the Houston area, though they may discover there were more when crews go out to survey the damage, Litcher said. He said there was damage in the area from both tornadoes and straight-line winds.
North of Houston, mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in Katy and Porter Heights, where the doors of a fire station were blown in, the weather service said.
The storms also caused departure delays of over an hour Saturday afternoon at Houston’s two main airports — Bush Intercontinental and Hobby — according to the website FlightAware.
About 71,000 utility customers were without power in Mississippi, and that number was expected to rise, said Malary White, chief communications officer for the state’s Emergency Management Agency.
The agency did not have any official damage reports but expected them to come in later. First responders were focused on ensuring people’s safety and making sure everyone was accounted for, according to White.
“We do anticipate more thorough damage assessments starting in the early morning hours,” she said.
Former Texas Longhorns wide receiver Johntay Cook has found his next home.
And it is with a familiar foe.
According to reports from On3’s Hayes Fawcett, Cook has committed to the Washington Huskies, picking the Big Ten team over pursuit from Florida.
The Longhorns, of course, fell to the Huskies in the 2023 College Football Playoff semi-finals, coming up just short of a national title appearance as a result.
The 5-foot-11, 175-pound speedster had originally been predicted to stay in the SEC and sign with the Florida Gators. That said, with the Huskies, he should have a tremendous opportunity to be the No. 1 receiver in the program.
Cook II, a five-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, had just eight catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns this season. He had three catches for 35 yards and two scores in the win over UTSA on Sept. 14.
There was an expectation entering the 2024 season that Cook II would see an increased role after minimal usage as a freshman but has instead become buried on a depth chart that features Isaiah Bond, Matthew Golden, DeAndre Moore Jr., Silas Bolden, and true freshman standout Ryan Wingo.
Cook ranked as the No. 31 player in the nation, No. 3 wide receiver and No. 5 player in the state of Texas for his class. As a transfer, he ranks as the No. 44 player available in the portal and the No. 14 wide receiver.
Cook ends his Longhorns career with just 16 catches for 273 yards and two touchdowns across two seasons.
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