Texas education board approves optional Bible-infused curriculum for elementary schools

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ education board voted Friday to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools under optional new curriculum that could test boundaries between religion and public classrooms in the U.S.

The material adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, passed in a 8-7 final vote over criticism that the lessons would proselytize to young learners and alienate students of faiths other than Christianity. Supporters argued the Bible is a core feature of American history and that teaching it will enrich lessons.

The vote allows schools in Texas, which has more than 5 million public school students, to begin using the material in kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms as early as next year.

Republican lawmakers celebrated the vote, including Texas' powerful lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who has pledged to pass legislation next year that would follow Louisiana in trying to require schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

In a statement, Gov. Greg Abbott called the vote “a critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.”

What the material says

Schools are not required to use the material, but those that do would receive extra funding from the state.

In the newly approved kindergarten materials, one lesson on helping one’s neighbor instructs teachers to talk about the Golden Rule using lessons from the Bible. It also instructs the teachers to explain that the Bible is “a collection of ancient texts” and that its different parts are “the core books of the Jewish and Christian religions.”

In a third-grade lesson about the first Thanksgiving, the material directs teachers to discuss how the governor of Plymouth said a prayer and gave a speech that included references to “several passages from the Christian Bible in the book of Psalms.” Teachers are then instructed to tell students the book of Psalms is a collection of songs, poems and hymns “that are used in both Jewish and Christian worship.”

With the new curriculum, Texas would be the first state to introduce Bible lessons in schools in this manner, according to Matthew Patrick Shaw, an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University. Whether the lesson plans will be considered constitutional is up in the air, he said.

Creating Bible-infused lessons

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

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

Children who would read the material, she said, “are simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.”

Mary Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, a right-leaning advocacy group, said there are “close to 300 common-day phrases that actually come from the Bible” and that students “will benefit from being able to understand a lot of these references.”

A narrow vote

More than 100 people testified at a board meeting this week that rung with emotion from parents, teachers and advocates.

One Democrat on the board, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, said the inclusion of religions in addition to Christianity in the materials was not an “adequate attempt to change that bias.”

“It seems to me like it is trying to place a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” she said.

One of the board members, Leslie Recine, is a Republican who was appointed to the board just weeks ago by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to temporarily fill a vacant seat. She voted in favor of the curriculum. Days after her appointment, a Democrat who ran unopposed was elected to fill that same board seat starting next year.

Bringing religion into schools

Texas' plans to implement Biblical teachings in public school lesson plans is the latest effort by Republican-controlled states to bring religion into the classroom.

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

In Oklahoma, the state's top education official has tried to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in fifth through 12th grades. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to stop the Republican state superintendent's plan and his efforts to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for public schools.

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LaFleur reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed. Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.