The Texas Board of Education voted Friday to allow Bible teaching in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led states that have pushed this year to give religion a greater presence in classrooms. public classes.

The program adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by Republican elected officials, is optional for schools, but they will receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in the classroom as early as next school year.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott expressed support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state education agency that oversees more than 5 million students in Texas public schools.

Parents and teachers who opposed the program said the classes would alienate students of other religious faiths.

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Supporters have argued that the Bible is an essential part of American history and that its teaching will enrich students’ learning.

Texas’ new curriculum follows Republican-led efforts in neighboring states to give religion a greater presence in public schools. In Oklahoma, the state’s education chief has ordered a copy of the Bible in every classroom, while Louisiana wants to require all public school classrooms in the state to display the Ten Commandments from next year.

With the new program, Texas would be the first state to introduce Bible classes in schools, according to Matthew Patrick Shaw, assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University.

Create Bible-Inspired Lessons

The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for more than 5 million students statewide, created its own educational materials after a law passed in 2023 by the GOP-controlled Legislature required it to do it. Lesson plans were made public this spring.

The material draws on lessons from Christianity more than any other religion in the reading and language arts modules offered for kindergarten through fifth grade, which critics say would alienate students of religious faiths different and would potentially violate the First Amendment.

“This program is not age- or subject-specific in the way it presents these Bible stories,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

The children who would read these materials, she said, “are simply too young to know the difference between what is faith and what is fact.”

This week, more than 100 people testified at a board meeting that sparked emotion from parents, teachers and advocates. Supporters of the program have argued that the Bible is an essential part of American history and that its teaching will enrich students’ learning.

“It’s said that there are almost 300 common phrases that actually come from the Bible,” said Mary Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, a right-wing advocacy group. “So students will benefit from being able to understand a lot of these literary references and have a way to understand them.”

A close early vote

The 15-member board includes 11 Republicans and four Democrats. He signaled his support for the documents in an 8-7 preliminary vote Wednesday.

One of the board members is a Republican who was appointed to the board just a few weeks ago by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to temporarily fill a vacant seat. Days after that nomination, a Democrat who ran unopposed was elected to fill that same board seat starting next year.

Abbott publicly supported the educational materials.

The question of whether the lesson plans will be considered constitutional is up in the air if the program is adopted, Shaw said.

“The question is how Texas is going to frame what’s being done here to avoid the establishment issue or tackle it head on,” he said.

Introduce religion into school

Texas’ plan to implement biblical teachings into public school lesson plans is the latest effort by Republican-controlled states to bring religion into classrooms.

In Louisiana, a law to put the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms was blocked by a federal judge earlier this month. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill in June, prompting a group of Louisiana public school parents of different faiths to sue.

In Oklahoma, the state’s top education official attempted to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in grades five through 12. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to stop the state’s Republican superintendent’s plan and effort to spend $3 million to buy Bibles for public schools.