Texas school board approves optional curriculum incorporating Bible lessons for grades K-5 – Boston News, Weather, Sports

(CNN) – Texas public schools now have the option of using a new state-written curriculum steeped in Bible stories after the state school board voted Friday in favor of the material.

A slim majority of the 15 board members — eight to seven — voted to keep the Bluebonnet learning material on a list of K-5 reading materials and English language arts materials for potential use in the 2025-26 school year.

The material was developed by the Texas Education Agency, a state agency that oversees public school education, led by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

Critics of the curriculum argue that it strongly favors Christianity over other faiths. Some have suggested that the teachings violate “establishment clause” of the First Amendment, which provides: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

Notably, Texas has independent school districts, meaning that each district decides what is taught in its classrooms. Bluebonnet learning materials will be part of a menu of programs available for use by school districts.

Although they are not required to use the new materials, adopting the open education resource developed by the state can win schools $40 per student annually. An additional $20 for printing costs would be provided for each student.

Four Democrats and three Republicans opposed the inclusion of the curriculum during a preliminary vote Tuesday, including Pam Little, the board’s Republican vice chair, who said the materials were too rigorous for young students. Little voted against the material on Friday as well.

“The curriculum content is overwhelming, leaving little time for students to practice reading and develop critical skills such as fluency and comprehension,” Little said in a post on social media following Tuesday’s school board meeting. The curriculum “also includes 30-minute long lessons for kindergarteners, which are not age appropriate,” she said.

The approval of the optional curriculum drew immediate backlash from the ACLU of Texas.

“The Bluebonnet program blatantly ignores religious freedom, a cornerstone of our nation since its founding,” Caro Achar, the civil rights group’s free speech engagement coordinator, told CNN after the vote. “The same politicians who censor what students can read now want to impose state-sponsored religion in our public schools. We urge districts to reject this optional curriculum and support a public school education that honors religious diversity and the constitutional rights of Texas students.”

For Sharyn Vane, an opponent of the Bluebonnet curriculum, it’s the parents’ job to teach their children about religion — not the public schools.

Vane told CNN on Friday, “Of course, as a Jewish parent, we taught our children our faith at home, and I think regardless of your faith, it’s the parents who have to teach those lessons.”

She said while the Supreme Court has ruled that public schools can teach the Bible in an academic context, “this curriculum is not that.”

“This program has explicit biblical instruction even for kindergarteners,” Vane said.

The curriculum’s emphasis on Christianity excludes the other religious traditions found in Texas, Vane added. “It would be great if all the religions represented in Texas, and certainly across the country, reflected in some way, shape or form, again, in appropriate ways,” she said.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott voiced his support for the state-written curriculum, which he said allows “students to better understand the connection between history, art, community, literature and religion around pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution , The Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution” according to a press release.

The State Council reviewed the materials accordingly Texas Education Agencyafter versions proposed in May faced heavy criticism.

The infusion of religion into public schools is a trend that is beginning to emerge in other Republican-led states: A federal judge temporarily blocked a Louisiana law that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by the new class. year. In Oklahoma, teachers and parents filed a lawsuit to block the state’s top education official from enforcing a similar mandate.

Last year, Texas allowed public schools to employ unaccredited religious chaplains as advisers, and the legislature has pushed to require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

A look at the controversial curriculum

Within the curriculum, a kindergarten lesson on the “Golden Rule,” for example, would lead instructors to teach students about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, from the New Testament of the Bible; the teacher’s guide for that lesson also mentions Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and other faiths. Another kindergarten unit on art appreciation would focus primarily on the Bible’s Book of Genesis and the artwork inspired by it.

A first class unit about “sharing stories” would teach “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” from the New Testament.

The third grade unit on Ancient Rome would feature a section devoted to the life of Jesus and Christianity in the Roman Empire. And a poetry unit for fifth graders would include Old Testament psalms taught alongside poems from Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams. No other texts from religious books will be included in the unit.

The Texas Education Agency says the lessons “were developed using the best evidence from cognitive science to ensure teachers have access to quality, grade-level materials that allow teachers to focus on providing instruction the highest quality and provide differentiated support to students. ” a press release he stated.

On Monday, more than 100 people testified for and against the materials before the Texas school board for more than seven hours. Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University and a Sunday school teacher, described the teachings as “fundamentally flawed” and “makes numerous claims that are erroneous, fabricated or just plain outlandish.”

The lessons included in the curriculum “heavily privilege” Christianity over other faiths, Chancey told CNN on Wednesday.

“There are more lessons in the Christian Bible than in any other religious text,” Chancey said. “There are more lessons about Jesus than about any other religious figure.”

This is unfortunate, he added, because educators must teach about religion to provide context around much literature, history and art.

“Religious literacy is an important part of cultural literacy, and students need to know about religion in order to function in a religiously diverse democracy,” Chancey told CNN. Very young children can also take these Bible stories literally, potentially causing confusion, he added.

Barbara Baruch, who is Jewish, testified Monday in opposition to the materials, saying, “I think my grandchildren should share our family’s religion. I need help to stop the government from teaching them to be Christians.”

She urged officials, “Don’t let the government interfere with anyone’s religious choice.”

“Religion has a place in American society”

The materials violate the separation of church and state, according to s press release of Texas AFT, a union representing more than 60,000 public school educators and support staff across the state.

Similarly, the Texas Freedom Network—a grassroots organization that advocates for religious freedom, individual liberties, and public education—says the curriculum “borders on Christian proselytizing to the extent of its extensive and erratic coverage of Christianity, and the Bible suggests that it it is the only religious tradition of any importance” a materials analysis report performances.

A proponent of the teachings testified Monday that Bluebonnet’s lessons are “grade-level appropriate instructional materials that include contextually relevant religious topics from a wide range of faiths.”

“It’s always been understood that religion has a place in American civil society,” says Jonathan Covey, policy director at the conservative group. Texas Valueshe said.

Another proponent of the materials, Glenn Melvin, argued that Bluebonnet Materials do not violate the First Amendment.

“Just reading passages from the Bible will not convert someone, because many Bible scholars are not Christians themselves,” Melvin said.

Most Texans are Christian: 23.5% are Evangelical Protestant, 20.3% Catholic, and 4.5% Protestant. according to 2020 data from the Association of Religion Data Archives, which sources data from congregations across the country. About 1.1 percent of Texans belong to Muslim congregations and 0.2 percent to Jewish congregations, according to the association.