Please tell me there are lawsuits in the works for this.
The State Board of Education gave the final greenlight to Bible-infused school standards on Friday after months of intense debate, enshrining Christianity as part of classroom instruction for all 5.5 million students in Texas public schools.
The Republican-led board cemented a new required reading list for every grade level on Friday with a 9-5 vote and then passed a rewrite of the state’s social studies requirements for kindergarten to eighth grade. Biblical concepts and figures are embedded in both plans, which are among the most aggressive efforts to mandate the teaching of Christianity in the country.
The standards will form the backbone of textbooks and annual exams. They will be implemented in phases beginning with elementary school in the 2030-2031 school year.
Republicans trumpeted the new standards as a victory for Judeo-Christian values and classical ideals. Proponents say that Bible-infused provisions, including required lessons on Jesus, Abraham and Moses, are designed not to evangelize but help children develop moral compasses and appreciate American exceptionalism.
“We are bringing the Bible back into schools this week for the first time in 60 years,” SBOE member Brandon Hall, R-Aledo, said during a prayer session outside the hearing this week.
One Republican, Evelyn Brooks of Frisco, voted against the list, saying it would remove autonomy from teachers.
Critics say the board has pursued a narrow view of history and literature through the lens of Christianity at the expense of racial and religious diversity, eliminating a world cultures course and trimming down lessons on the stories of Blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups. Some said they believe the dictates violate constitutional principle of separating church and state, forecasting potential legal challenges ahead.
“Texas is telling millions of children that one religion deserves the government’s seal of approval, while everyone else is an afterthought,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “That’s government-sponsored religious favoritism — and the First Amendment strictly forbids it.”
The provisions that do touch on non-Christian faiths cast them in problematic lights, advocates have said. Rabbis and Jewish community groups testified that odd pairings of certain books and lessons on the Holocaust could “absolutely lead to anti-semitism” in classrooms.
The few references to Islam generally involve violence, including requirements that students learn about the “Muslim invasion” of Christian lands during the Crusades and the role of “jihad” in 21st-century terrorism.
“You have tied Muslim history to warfare, piracy and radicalism, then voted on purpose to strip out the algebra and astronomy contributions Muslims have made,” said Amina Ishaq of the Fort Bend Coalition for Justice. “You have decided which children inherit greatness and which only inherit suspicion.”
I mean, I don’t have a lot of faith in the success of any of those hoped-for future lawsuits – I am fully aware of how debased and corrupt the Fifth Circuit is, and the answer to the question “how can any of this possibly be legal” is “it is if the six freaks on SCOTUS say it is” – but we have to start somewhere. The rest will require winning a lot more elections, this year and in 2028. You know what you need to do. Houston Public Media has more.
I would call them “toadies” rather than “freaks” . . .