Texas education leaders unveil Bible-infused elementary school curriculum [View all]

BY POOJA SALHOTRA AND ROBERT DOWNEN
MAY 30, 2024

Elementary school curriculum proposed this week would infuse new state reading and language arts lessons with teachings on the Bible, marking the latest push by Texas Republicans to put more Christianity in public schools.

The Texas Education Agency released the thousands of pages of educational materials this week. They have been made available for public viewing and feedback and, if approved by the State Board of Education in November, will be available for public schools to roll out in August of 2025. Districts will have the option of whether to use the materials, but will be incentivized to do so with up to $60 per student in additional funding.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said the materials are based on extensive cognitive science research and will help improve students’ reading and math scores. In 2019, less than half of students met grade-level standards for reading, and that percentage has declined since the pandemic, based on state standardized test scores.

The new materials have prompted criticism, though. The education news site The 74 first reported the redesign on Wednesday and included excerpts of lesson plans with biblical references. They also reported that a New York-based curriculum vendor, Amplify, opted out of bidding on a contract after the state sought to insert biblical materials, but not other religious texts, into the curriculum. The state education agency rejected those claims, saying multiple religions are included throughout the curriculum. Because of Texas' size, textbooks that are developed for its schools are often used in other states.

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I just wasted 30 minutes navigating the most user unfriendly site ever. Part of the many hats I wore before retirement was web site designer.

Here is a link to the site

This site contains information and a link to a Program Guide concerning the new Texas curriculum.

Program Guide

I skimmed thru the Program Guide and found on page 23 the religion section. There are so many issues here that I will only address one.

Texas will teach our kids about the Tanakh, the Old and New Testament (don’t get me started) but not the Quran nor Hindu sacred texts, nor Buddhist sacred texts but polytheism practiced in Greece will also be taught.

Uhhh one problem - Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are booming in Texas.

Next I tried four times to submit a comment/opinion. Uh yeah - good luck with that. Pffttt