Texas makes Bible study mandatory in public schools because of course they did
Public school kids in Texas are about to get some mandatory Sunday school vibes on a Tuesday morning, thanks to a brand-new reading list that is already making civil rights lawyers drool.
The Texas State Board of Education just voted to approve a new elementary curriculum that includes mandatory readings from the Bible. It's part of a massive list of over 200 texts featuring literary giants like William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and... well, King David.
The board threw in a few classic Sunday school hits, like David and Goliath for the little kids and Adam and Eve for the older ones. But here is the kicker: the curriculum almost exclusively uses Protestant Christian translations, completely ignoring Catholic versions, the Quran, or any other holy book, save for one Jewish text. Parents can technically opt their kids out, but the school districts themselves are being heavily incentivized to adopt this specific curriculum.
Naturally, critics are already screaming about the First Amendment and the separation of church and state. America has been fighting over the Bible in classrooms for over 150 years, with courts repeatedly saying schools can teach about religion historically, but they cannot use public funds to evangelize kids.
The inevitable wave of lawsuits will probably reach the Supreme Court right around the time these kids finally learn how to spell "litigation."
Source: The Conversation
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