The State Board of Education has backed a new public elementary school curriculum that includes material drawn from the Bible.
The new policy was approved in a razor-thin 8-to7 vote. The Republican-backed effort was vociferously opposed by Democrats and teachers’ groups.
Schools will not be forced to use the Bible in its coursework, but would receive additional state funding if they did so, the Associated Press reported.
Board members like Will Hickman who voted in favor of introducing the Bible to the classroom said it would help students learn religious concepts.
“In my view, these stories are on the education side and are establishing cultural literacy,” Hickman said, according to the Texas Tribune .
“And there’s religious concepts like the Good Samaritan and the Golden Rule and Moses that all students should be exposed to,” Hickman added.
Other Republican Officials have shown support for the curriculum.
Governor Abbott said in a statement that the curriculum will, “allow our students to better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution,” reported the New York Times.
Not everyone was in support.
“If this is the standard for students in Texas, then it needs to be exactly that,” said Staci Childs, a Houston Democrat, reported Texas Tribune. “It needs to be high quality, and it needs to be the standard, free of any establishment clause issues, free of any lies, and it needs to be accurate.”
“This curriculum fails to meet the standard of an honest, secular one,” educator Megan Tessler said, according to the Associated Press. “Public schools are meant to educate, not indoctrinate.”