A debate in the Oklahoma Senate yesterday over the use of corporal punishment against children with disabilities turned into a lesson about how not to read the Bible.
The conservative-dominated high court has issued several decisions in recent years signaling a willingness to allow public funds to flow to religious entities.
Challenges to state-level Christian Nationalist measures are now working their way through the courts, which have grown friendlier to conservative Christian interests thanks to Trump’s judicial appointments.
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.