Texas education leaders are considering incorporating the Bible into classroom reading lists. The education board will meet this week for a preliminary vote on the proposal.
Specific passages to be incorporated include David and Goliath, the Tower of Babel, Jonah and the whale, and the love passage in 1 Corinthians.
“Islam and Buddhism didn’t found the West,” Mandy Drogin, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told The New York Times. She added, “To not know the story of the good Samaritan, for example, you’re really going to miss on not just important lessons, but rich cultural and historical significance as an American.”
Others have not been supportive of the proposal. “If adopted as written, these recommendations would essentially leave our children able to recite disconnected Texas facts, but it would really undermine their ability to understand a global economy and the role that Texas plays outside of the state,” said Rocio Fierro-Perez, the political director for the Texas Freedom Network.
The proposal comes as the state also seeks to implement the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms, although the measure faces legal issues.
A federal judge in Texas blocked several school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments as obligated under Senate Bill 10. “Displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in S.B. 10 violates the Establishment Clause,” U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia wrote.
“It is impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent Plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining Defendants from enforcing S.B. 10 across their districts,” the judge added.
A similar ruling was issued by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in August. “Even though the Ten Commandments would not be affirmatively taught, the captive audience of students likely would have questions, which teachers would feel compelled to answer,” Biery wrote in the decision.
