Texas school board to vote Friday on curriculum that incorporates Bible lessons

By Amanda Musa, CNN

(CNN) — Education officials in Texas are expected to vote Friday on a new public school curriculum that would incorporate stories from the Bible into elementary school teachings.

On Tuesday, eight out of 15 state school board members signaled support for keeping the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum on a list of K-5 reading and English language arts materials for potential use in the 2025-26 school year.

The material was written by the Texas Education Agency, a state body overseeing public school education, headed by Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath.

Critics of the proposed curriculum argue it heavily favors Christianity over other faiths. Some have suggested the teachings violate the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

Four Democrats and three Republicans opposed the inclusion of the curriculum, including Pam Little, the Republican vice chair of the board, who said the materials are too rigorous for young students.

“The program’s content is overwhelming, leaving little time for students to practice reading and develop critical skills like fluency and comprehension,” Little said in a social media post following Tuesday’s school board meeting. The curriculum “also includes long, 30-minute lessons for kindergarteners, which are not age-appropriate,” she said.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has voiced his support for the state-written curriculum, which he said allows “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,” according to a May news release.

The state board revised the materials after the versions proposed in May faced heavy criticism, according to the Texas Education Agency.

School districts are not required to use the new materials if approved. However, adopting the Texas Education Agency-developed open education resource can earn schools $40 per student annually. An additional $20 would be included per student for printing costs.

The infusion of religion in public schools is a trend that is beginning to emerge in other Republican-led states: A federal judge this month temporarily blocked a Louisiana law that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by the new year. In Oklahoma, teachers and parents filed a lawsuit to stop the state’s top education official from enforcing a similar mandate.

Last year, Texas allowed public schools to hire uncertified religious chaplains as counselors, and the legislature has pushed to require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

A look at the controversial curriculum

Under the proposed curriculum, a kindergarten lesson about the “Golden Rule,” for instance, would prompt instructors to teach students about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, from the Bible’s New Testament; the teacher guide for that lesson also mentions Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and other faiths. Another kindergarten unit about art appreciation would primarily focus on the Bible’s Book of Genesis and artworks inspired by it.

A first grade unit on “sharing stories” would teach “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” from the New Testament.

The third grade unit on ancient Rome would feature a section dedicated to the life of Jesus and Christianity in the Roman Empire. And a poetry unit for fifth graders would include psalms from the Old Testament taught alongside poems from Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams. No other texts from religious books would be included in the unit.

The Texas Education Agency says the lessons “were developed using the best evidence from cognitive science to ensure teachers have access to quality, on-grade-level materials that enable teachers to focus on delivering the highest-quality instruction and providing differentiated supports to students,” a news release stated.

On Monday, more than 100 people for and against the materials testified before the Texas school board for more than seven hours. Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University and a Sunday school teacher, described the teachings as “fundamentally flawed” and they “make numerous claims that are erroneous, made up, or just plain strange.”

The lessons included in the curriculum “strongly privilege” Christianity over other faiths, Chancey told CNN Wednesday.

“There are more lessons about the Christian Bible than about any other religious text,” Chancey said. “There are more lessons about Jesus than about any other religious figure.”

This is unfortunate, he added, because educators need to teach about religion to provide context around much of literature, history and art.

“Religious literacy is an important part of cultural literacy and students need to know about religion to function in a religiously diverse democracy,” Chancey told CNN. Very young children may also take these biblical tales literally, potentially causing confusion, he added.

Barbara Baruch, who is Jewish, testified in opposition to the materials on Monday, saying, “I believe my grandkids should share our family’s religion. I need help stopping the government from teaching them to be Christians.”

She urged officials: “Don’t let the government interfere with anyone’s religious choice.”

‘Religion has a place in American society’

The proposed materials violate the separation of church and state, according to a news release from Texas AFT, a union that represents over 60,000 public school educators and support staff across the state.

Similarly, the Texas Freedom Network – a grassroots organization advocating for religious freedom, individual liberties and public education – says the curriculum “verges on Christian proselytism insofar as its extensive, lopsided coverage of Christianity and the Bible suggests that this is the only religious tradition of any importance,” a report analyzing the proposed materials shows.

A supporter of the teachings testified Monday that the Bluebonnet lessons are “grade level-appropriate instructional materials that include contextually relevant religious topics from a wide range of faiths.”

“It has always been understood that religion has a place in American civic society,” Jonathan Covey, policy director at conservative group Texas Values, said.

Another supporter of the materials, Glenn Melvin, argued the proposals do not violate the First Amendment.

“Just reading some of the passages from the Bible will not cause someone to convert, as many Biblical scholars are not themselves Christian,” Melvin said.

The majority of Texans are Christian: 23.5% are evangelical Protestant, 20.3% Catholic, and 4.5% mainline Protestant, according to 2020 data from the Association of Religion Data Archives, which sources data from congregations across the country. Around 1.1% of Texans belong to Muslim congregations and 0.2% to Jewish congregations, according to the association.

CNN’s Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.

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