“It’s unsafe for my children,” said Laney Hawes, a mother to four public school children in Texas.
Hawes has been closely monitoring the new curriculum proposed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which would merge new elementary reading lessons with Bible teachings.
“It is not in the best interest academically,” said Hawes.
On Monday, the House Public Education Committee discussed the new curriculum.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath testified that new teaching materials are based on research to help improve student test scores. The purpose is to build vocabulary and not background knowledge,” he said.
But criticism sparked when the teaching materials released included biblical principles like the “Sermon on the Mount,” the life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection and Bible prophecies.
“It sure reads like a Bible class that you might get at a traditional Christian church,” said Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University.
After an overview of the curriculum, Stein spotted two ways it could be in violation of the Constitution.
“The Constitution doesn’t allow for the establishment of an official religion, and with this particular curriculum, looks like may not violate just the Separation Clause, but the Establishment Clause,” Stein added.
The Establishment Clause, being part of the First Amendment, prevents the government from favoring one religion over another.
“The Bible is the only subject in this curriculum,” said Stein, “It’s not diverse — the Koran is not part of those lesson plans.”
Austin-area state Rep. James Talarico said the lack of diversity is a major point of contention for him regarding the curriculum. He accused the TEA of scrapping large bulks of Muslim teachings from the new curriculum.
“Half a million Texans are practicing Muslims, and this new state curriculum went through and deleted every mention of Islam’s prophet Mohammed,” Talarico said.
The new curriculum is part of House Bill 1605, which also includes an immunity clause for teachers who are accused of violating the Constitution.
“Are you worried that if Texas public school teachers use this new curriculum, those teachers will violate the Establishment Clause by teaching Bible stories in public schools?” asked Talarico to Commissioner Morath during the hearing.
Morath replied, “No.”
Talarico went on to ask Morath if they didn’t suspect a constitutional violation from teachers, what was the purpose of the immunity clause?
Morath replied that there could have been a number of reasons the immunity clause was included in the bill.
Stein said it was to protect teachers and the TEA from legal challenges, which he suspected, were certainly coming.
“The authors of it immediately knew it would be challenged,” said Stein, noting that the clause ensures “the TEA won’t dismiss teachers, or say that they violated the Constitution if they’re faithful to the curriculum.”
Talarico has now accused the TEA of prioritizing Christianity in the classroom. “If you’re a Muslim student, a Jewish student, a Hindu student in Texas public schools, you already stick out,” he said.
He added that students are “going to have teachers at the front of classrooms preaching Christianity as the one true and only religion.”
Brian Phillips with the Texas Public Policy Foundation disagreed and said some biblical parables are crucial to developmental learning.
“Teaching the story of the ‘Good Samaritan’ as a way to understand how to be a good neighbor — I don’t see how that could be divisive or negative at all,” said Phillips.
The new curriculum has not yet been voted on or rolled out to public schools.
Parents like Hawes said these new teachings ride along the lines of indoctrination.
“We cannot look at the history of America through a singular religious lens, we are a pluralistic nation and this is anti-pluralism,” she said.
The TEA has made the proposed curriculum public so community members can offer feedback until Aug. 16.
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