Texas curriculum overhaul would increase biblical content in elementary schools
Two million Texas kids could see new curriculum emphasizing Bible stories to instruct them in the ‘American cultural experience’
Texas elementary school students would get a significant dose of Bible knowledge with their reading instruction under a sweeping curriculum redesign unveiled on Wednesday.
From the story of Queen Esther – who convinced her husband, the Persian king, to spare the Jews – to the depiction of Christ’s last supper, the material is designed to draw connections between classroom content and religious texts.
With the potential to reach over 2 million K-5 students in the nation’s second-largest state, the update marks a big step in a movement embraced by conservatives to root young people’s education in what they consider traditional values. It is also bound to raise questions about the potential for religious indoctrination in a state that has been a battleground for such disputes. Last year, for example, Texas passed a law allowing chaplains to work as school counselors.
“It is reasonable to devote some attention to [the Bible], and state education standards across the nation often require such attention,” said Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “The problem, of course, is that sometimes the legitimate reason of cultural literacy is used as a smokescreen to hide religious and ideological agendas.”
The release comes four days after the state Republican party passed a platform calling on the legislature and the state board of education to require instruction on the Bible. Texas education department officials declined to comment on the platform and have emphasized that the new curriculum includes material from other faiths.
The redesign came after a leading curriculum publisher balked at the state’s request to infuse its offerings with biblical content. Texas officials then turned to other vendors, including conservative Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan and the right-leaning Texas Public Policy Foundation, which supported an unsuccessful effort to require the Ten Commandments in every classroom, according to a list obtained by the 74.
‘Let’s read the story in the book of Matthew’
State officials say the changes are meant to familiarize students with stories that are central to American culture.
The mentions range in size from a page on Esther from the Old Testament to a few paragraphs about Samuel Adams at the Continental Congress. His plea to fellow delegates to pray together, despite religious differences, is offered as a first-grade vocabulary lesson on the word “compromise”.
“If you’re reading classic works of American literature, there are often religious allusions in that literature,” the state education commissioner, Mike Morath, told the 74. “Any changes being made are to reinforce the kind of background knowledge on these seminal works of the American cultural experience.”
Fifth graders are asked to read Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Written after his 1963 arrest for leading a march against segregation, King compared his act of civil disobedience to the “refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar” in the Book of Daniel.
“If you don’t know who Nebuchadnezzar is, you don’t know what [King’s] talking about,” Morath said. “How do you make sure that you can unlock in the minds of our kids their ability to wrestle with … ideas that have surfaced in great works of literature?”
In another example, a lesson on The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci’s Renaissance masterpiece, points fifth graders to the New Testament.
“The Bible explains that Jesus knew that after this meal, he would be arrested, put on trial, and killed,” the text reads. “Let’s read the story in the book of Matthew to see for ourselves what unfolded during the supper.”
While drawing parallels to religious texts, Morath said the lessons would respect bright lines regarding the separation of church and state.
“This is still a curriculum for public school and we’ve designed it to be appropriate in that setting,” he said.
A financial incentive
The redesign builds on a $19m K-5 English language arts curriculum delivered during the pandemic by Amplify, a leading publisher based in New York.
Roughly 400 districts have used Amplify’s materials since 2021. Some teachers give the publisher high marks for building students’ vocabulary and comprehension. But not everyone has been pleased. Last year, Morath met with conservative parents who decried the materials’ emphasis on mythology and minimal attention to Christianity.
“There’s one mention of Jesus, that he was a teacher a couple thousand years ago,” said Jamie Haynes, who started a website on “concerning” curriculum and library books. “The only other time we can find God, our God – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – is in the American unit.”
State officials asked Amplify to provide a lesson on the story of Esther and suggested a unit on Exodus, said Alexandra Walsh, the company’s chief product officer.
While it had previously tweaked its curriculum for other states, Walsh said the company had never been asked to add biblical material. And when it suggested inserting content from other world religions, the state rejected the idea, said Amplify spokesperson Kristine Frech.
“There was not much appetite for a variety of wisdom texts,” she said. “There was much more of an appetite for the tie to traditional Christian texts.”
The company opted against bidding on a contract to provide additional revisions. In a statement, Texas education officials dismissed Amplify’s charge that they turned down material from other religions as “completely false” and stressed that the finished product “includes representation from multiple faiths”. The state declined to specify how many of the new lessons have religious themes or derive from Judeo-Christian sources.
In an interview with the 74, Morath pointed to a lesson on the second world war that focuses on J Robert Oppenheimer’s famous reaction upon witnessing the explosion of the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” The words, featured prominently in the recent Oscar-winning film, derive from the Bhagavad-Gita, a Hindu scripture.
Kindergarteners studying the Golden Rule would learn that it comes from the “Christian Bible”, according to the text, but that similar principles can be found in the “ancient books” of Islam and Hinduism. Another section on the Renaissance highlights Muslim settlers in Spain and their contributions to philosophy, poetry and astronomy.
After Amplify bowed out, the state awarded an $84m contract to the Boston-based Public Consulting Group to revise the curriculum.
For the reading program, the company worked closely with several authors who specialize in Texas history, but it also leaned on conservative organizations steeped in the culture wars. Contracts went to two officials at the Texas Public Policy Foundation: Courtnie Bagley, the thinktank’s education director, and Thomas Lindsay, a higher education director and vocal opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The foundation, which called the Ten Commandments bill an “important step in bringing faith-based values back to the forefront of our society”, declined to comment on their contributions. Public Consulting Group officials also did not respond to questions.
Hillsdale, another vendor, authored the 1776 Curriculum, a civics and history model that emphasizes American exceptionalism and is a favorite of conservatives opposed to lessons on institutional racism.
The state did not respond to questions on the role Hillsdale and the Texas Public Policy Foundation played in its new curriculum. Hillsdale officials said they provided their feedback free of charge.
“Hillsdale never profits from its work in K-12, nor does it accept one penny from federal, state or local taxpayers,” said a spokesperson, Emily Davis. She added: “Religion is taught for the sake of cultural literacy, not to promote a particular religion.”
Officials are quick to point out that adoption of the new program is voluntary. But a potential $60-a-student incentive it is offering for participation may make it difficult for cash-strapped school systems to refuse.
The updated materials are now open for public review and are scheduled to go before the state board of education for approval this fall. Aicha Davis, a Democrat on the Republican-led board, predicted “they would totally support something like that”.
“It doesn’t surprise me that this is happening,” she said.
This story was produced by the 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America
