Texas’s Austin (AP) One of the most recent Republican-led initiatives in the United States to increase religious instruction in classrooms was the Texas Education Board’s recommendation on Tuesday for a new curriculum that would be voluntary for schools to implement in kindergarten through fifth grade.
The Bluebonnet textbook, which sparked hours of frequently tearful testimony from parents and educators earlier this week, is now one step closer to being approved by the Texas State Board of Education.
The measure is scheduled for a final board vote on Friday.
The state’s public education agency created a curriculum that would let Bible lessons from books like Genesis and the Golden Rule to be taught in classrooms. Although schools would earn extra funds if they adopted the curriculum, it would be optional under the idea.
At the State Board of Education’s last meeting of the year, educators, parents, and advocates voiced their opinions. Many opponents contended that the proposal’s focus on Christian teachings would alienate pupils from different religious backgrounds. Advocates argued that it will provide pupils with a more comprehensive educational foundation.
According to educator Megan Tessler’s testimony on Monday, the idea goes against the objective of public schools.
According to Tessler, this curriculum does not live up to the standards of an honest, secular one. The purpose of public schools is to teach, not to brainwash.
The notion was strongly supported by others.
In her testimony on Monday, Cindy Asmussen stated both educators and parents desire a return to greatness. She claimed that a fundamental component of classical education is the fact that biblical stories and ideas have been around for hundreds of years.
The curriculum proposal, according to religious experts and the Texas Freedom Network, a left-leaning watchdog group that keeps an eye on the state’s education board, is overly Christian and skirts the subject of slavery.
The Texas Education Agency created the program earlier this year after a law requiring it to provide its own free textbook was passed. Greg Abbott, a Republican governor, has openly endorsed the new materials.
Texas Republican lawmakers are expected to take up the topic again next year after also proposing to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
Similar attempts across the nation, which are also facing legal difficulties, are reflected in the proposal to include religious instruction in Texas public schools.
State representatives in Oklahoma are working to incorporate the Bible into the curriculum of public schools. However, a group of parents, teachers, and other students has filed a lawsuit to prevent the top education official in Oklahoma from implementing the plan for children in grades 5 through 12. In support of the plan, the complaint filed before the Oklahoma Supreme Court also requests that the court prevent the Republican state superintendent from spending $3 million on Bibles.
A federal judge recently overturned a new state law in Louisiana that intended to have the Ten Commandments displayed in every public classroom. The Louisiana law had an overtly religious purpose, according to U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge last week. He rejected state officials’ arguments that the government could require the Ten Commandments to be posted because they are historically significant to the establishment of U.S. law. According to his opinion, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not among the other essential texts that need to be posted.
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Lathan is a member of the Statehouse News Initiative’s Associated Press/Report for America corps.A nonprofit national service initiative called Report for America places reporters in local newsrooms to explore topics that aren’t often covered.
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