The Texas board of education voted today to advance a controversial new curriculum that includes Bible stories in elementary school reading lessons—the latest in a series of high-profile moves from education leaders in several states to incorporate Christian teaching into public school classrooms.
The state-developed curriculum, Bluebonnet Learning, instructs teachers to introduce the golden rule to kindergartners via Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Fifth graders read lengthy passages about the Biblical account of the Last Supper as part of an art history lesson.
Third grade lessons on ancient Rome repeatedly reference Roman deities as “mythical” while offering no such qualifiers for the Christian god.
The materials have been at the center of a political firestorm since the first draft was released in May. The version approved today incorporates feedback received on that draft.
Proponents of the curriculum, including Christian organizations, have argued that the Bible is a core text in American culture and that religious stories are important background knowledge for students to learn.
Biblical references “elevate every student’s understanding of literature and history,” said Megan Benton, the strategic policy associate at Texas Values, an organization that works to advance “Judeo-Christian values,” at the board meeting during more than seven hours of public comments on Monday.
But critics counter that the program essentially proselytizes to students, violating the First Amendment’s establishment clause that prevents the government from establishing a religion. And some say that the lessons contain multiple historical inaccuracies.
Tuesday’s vote granted Bluebonnet Learning preliminary approval to the state list of comprehensive English/language arts curricula from which districts can select. Publishers of the listed materials, including the state-created Bluebonnet, have until Wednesday to make any last changes, and then the state board of education will take a final vote on Friday.
The program won’t be mandated. Still, school systems that use the program can collect up to $40 per student from the state.
More broadly, Texas—with its nearly 6 million public school students, second only to California in student population—has held large sway over educational publishers and has long been seen as a bellwether for curriculum trends.
The shift toward religious content could have ripple effects far beyond the state’s borders: As Texas advocates on both sides of the debate proposed changes to the curriculum this summer, officials in several other states were also testing the church-state divide.
Other states open the door to religious content
In June, Louisiana passed a law that requires all public schools to display a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. (A federal judge blocked that law earlier this month, calling it “unconstitutional on its face.”) Also this summer, Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a memo to district superintendents, ordering them to include the Bible in lessons for students in grades 5-12.
Religion may soon loom larger over federal education policy, too. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to promote prayer in public schools, and he offered support for Louisiana’s law back in June.
And Bluebonnet Learning has its own ties to the future Trump administration. In developing the materials, the state education agency hired a publishing company that writes Bible lessons, co-founded by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, The 74 reported this month. Trump has selected Huckabee as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Outside of concerns about religious content, some experts have questioned the historical accuracy of Bluebonnet materials.
The Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy organization that promotes religious freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive rights, published an analysis of Bluebonnet lessons claiming the materials “whitewash difficult historical truths” and distort the role religious freedom plays in the nation’s founding.
Julia Brookins, the senior program analyst for teaching and learning at the American Historical Association, said the curriculum’s history lessons suffered from “widespread weaknesses.”
“I know the members of the board share the public’s priority that Texas schools teach students how to think, not what to think,” Brookins said, during public comment on Monday. “In that light, the history in Bluebonnet Learning is a great disappointment.”
Is the Bible important background knowledge?
Debates over the curriculum have touched on another hot topic in education—the role of background knowledge in reading comprehension.
Studies have shown that students who have broader and deeper knowledge about the world have an easier time understanding what they read. In response to those findings, some districts have adopted what are known as “knowledge-building curricula”—English/language arts programs that teach writing and writing skills through social studies and science content.
Some commentators have argued that Bible stories should be considered important background knowledge, too.
“Our language is redolent with concepts, phrases, and allusions drawn directly from the Bible and other touchstones of Western thought and culture that speakers and writers assume their audiences know and understand,” wrote Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in a September opinion piece in The 74. “Knowing these things is critical to reading comprehension.”
Pondiscio and others have cited the thinking of E.D. Hirsch, a University of Virginia professor whose 1987 book Cultural Literacy included a list of 5,000 references, dates, and other bits of knowledge he claimed to represent the ideas shared by literate Americans. (That appendix lists Christianity as a topic as well as several references from biblical literature but does not specifically name the Bible.)
Audrey Young, a Republican member of the Texas school board, echoed that point during Monday’s meeting. She cited a line from How to Read Literature Like a Professor, a book by Thomas C. Foster, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint: “To get the most out of your reading of European and American literature, knowing something about the Old and New Testaments is essential.”
But critics argued that Bluebonnet doesn’t just teach Bible stories to provide historical and literary context.
There’s an important difference between teaching about religion and teaching students to be religious, said Courtney Toretto, the director of policy for the Central Division of the Anti-Defamation League, during public comment on Monday.
Even after the state made revisions to Bluebonnet, she said, “these materials still appeared to cross the line.”
