Texas Moves Closer To Approving Biblical Material In Public School Curriculum

The Republican-led Texas State Board of Education is on the verge of approving optional biblical teachings in the Lone Star State’s public school curriculum.

On Tuesday, a majority of the board’s 15 members signaled support for Bluebonnet Learning, an elementary school curriculum that includes Christian teachings and biblical references, The Texas Tribune reported. The board will officially vote on the curriculum on Friday.

If approved, Texas school districts would be offered a financial incentive to adopt it, and the curriculum would become optional for 2.3 million public school students in kindergarten through fifth grade, beginning in August 2025. The curriculum includes lessons on the biblical accounts of Jesus’ parables of “The Good Samaritan” and the “Golden Rule.”

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott backed the curriculum in a statement, saying that it will “allow our students to better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution,” The New York Times reported. Board members in support of the curriculum also said that it would help students improve their reading and “cultural literacy.”

“In my view, these stories are on the education side and are establishing cultural literacy,” Republican State Board of Education member Will Hickman said. “And there’s religious concepts like the Good Samaritan and the Golden Rule and Moses that all students should be exposed to.”

Opponents of the curriculum argued that it could be viewed as political or as setting up a “state religion.”

“I am a Christian, and I do believe that religion is a part of our culture, but our nation does not have a religion. We’re unique in that,” said Mary Lowe, co-founder of Families Engaged for an Effective Education, according to the Texas Tribune. “So I do not think that our school districts should imply or try to overtly impress to young impressionable children that the state does have a state religion.”

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Many parents spoke at the State Board of Education with some defending the curriculum, arguing that Christianity and the Bible are inseparable from American history. The New York Times reported that one mother, who is also a substitute teacher, told the board that Jesus’ incarnation “is and always will be the hinge of all of history.”

“How would the canceling of such fundamental facts serve the education of our children or contribute to shape them morally?” she asked.