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.