The state will likely begin to fund private Christian academies while also funding Bibles in schools — promoting the idea that the U.S. is a Christian nation.
The vote allows schools in Texas, which has more than 5 million public school students, to begin using religious material in kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms as early as next year.
A new Bible-infused curriculum would be optional for kindergarten through fifth grade, one of the latest Republican-led efforts to incorporate religious teachings into public school classrooms.
Around the country, advocates for conservative Christian education have been finding legal ways to tap taxpayer money used more typically for public schools.
The judge said the law is ‘unconstitutional on its face’ and plaintiffs are likely to win their case with claims that the law violates the First Amendment.
Parents of Louisiana public school children from various religious backgrounds filed the lawsuit arguing that it violates First Amendment language forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty.
The suit alleges that the mandate violates the Oklahoma Constitution because it involves spending public money to support religion and favors one religion over another by requiring the use of a Protestant version of the Bible.
‘Taking what has long been understood as a global message religiously and stamping it with the flag of one nation is the type of thing that for centuries theologians would call heresy,’ said Brian Kaylor.
Tailoring the request — part of State Superintendent Ryan Walters’s efforts to require Bibles in public schools — so that only one manufacturer’s Bible could qualify would be illegal.