Event: Texas

A Texas education panel has approved plans to make Bible stories mandatory for all five million public school students in the state, sparking a row about separation of church and state.The required readings, which don't come into effect until 2030, include Bible passages about Adam and Eve and from the book of Exodus, where God speaks to Moses through a burning bush. Critics say the new reading requirements, which also include Dickens and Shakespeare, infringe on religious freedoms and lack diversity.The Republican-controlled State Board of Education approved the measure in a 9-5 vote with one Republican joining Democrats to vote against it. "We are bringing the Bible back into schools this week for the first time in 60 years," Brandon Hall, a Republican member of the board of education, said this week.Supporters say schoolchildren ought to learn about Judeo-Christian traditions that they argue were essential to the nation's founding.The new list establishes for the first time books that students across Texas must read.It includes English literature classics such as Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.Dr Martin Luther King Jr's I've Been to the Mountain Top speech and Margaret Thatcher's eulogy for President Ronald Reagan are also on the wider-ranging list.But it is the mandatory religious texts that have drawn fierce opposition from education and civil liberties groups.Students will learn passages about Jesus in the New Testament and read the Parable of the Prodigal Son, under the curriculum.Felicia Martin, executive director of Texas Freedom Network, a left-wing activist group, said ahead of the vote that the reading list "centres Christianity above all other religious faiths and traditions". "[It has] a very Western-centric view of the world that omits the contributions and the histories of black, brown, indigenous people, of other religious faiths and traditions that…

The Texas Board of Education on ⁠Friday approved mandated reading ⁠lists for public school ⁠children that include passages from the Bible – the latest effort by leaders there to infuse the education system with conservative and religious ideals.The Republican-dominated board, in a 9-5 vote with ‌one member absent and not voting, approved the reading lists for over 5 million public school students beginning in 2030.Texas had already mandated that the Bible’s Ten Commandments be displayed in all public schools, a decision that was upheld by a federal appeal ⁠court earlier this year, following on the heels of other Republican-led states ‌seeking to infuse public education with Christian teachings.Critics say these decisions are at odds with the Constitution’s “establishment clause”, ‌long understood by courts as separating church and state.Audience members and State Board of Education member Julie Pickren (front right) pray before a meeting on social studies standards in Austin, Texas, on Friday. Photo: Austin American-Statesman via APSupporters say ⁠the measures restore ⁠basic Judeo-Christian teachings to school systems, which many have said are historically significant.