AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Despite vocal protests, the Texas State Board of Education voted May 21 to approve social-studies-curriculum standards that urge high-school students to examine church-state separation critically — a move that may affect textbooks nationwide.
A motion to postpone until July a vote on the statewide standards failed 6-8. The new standards — for high-school-level classes in history, government and other social studies — passed along party lines, with the board's 9 Republicans favoring and 5 Democrats opposing them.
In the days leading to the vote, more than 200 people registered to testify before the board, voicing their opinions about language of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, a state-mandated set of learning objectives for public-school students.
Those standards not only influence textbooks in Texas, but also have an impact nationally because Texas is one of the top two buyers of textbooks in the United States, and many publishers craft their books with the Texas market in mind.
But those who expressed immediate disapproval of the standards included not only many supporters of strong church-state separation, but also legislators in the nation's other largest textbook market — California.
Bitter division on board
Over the objection of some members — including Democrat Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, who raised concern about last minute “cut-and-paste” additions to standards — the board approved a lengthy list of amendments on the day of the final vote.
Bob Craig of Lubbock offered an amendment rewriting the contentious church-state amendment, offering what some observers characterized as compromise language.
The amendment, calling on high-school students to compare and contrast separation of church and state with the Founders’ original intent, passed 11-3.
As amended, the standard states that students should “[e]xamine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America and guaranteed it free exercise by saying that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and compare and contrast this to the phrase ‘separation of church and state.’”
Thomas Jefferson, who famously used the phrase “wall of separation between church and state” in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, had been dropped by the board from an early draft of the high-school standards in a list of influential political thinkers, although he still appeared in the standards at other grade levels and in other contexts.
In response to a firestorm over the omission, the board reinstated Jefferson to the high-school standards. But the board rejected a move to add James Madison — primary author of the Bill of Rights — and drop theologian John Calvin’s name.
At the opening of the May 21 meeting, Republican board member Cynthia Dunbar of Richmond offered an invocation articulating the position of a vocal segment of the state board — a desire to teach public-school students the United States is “a Christian land governed by Christian principles.”
“I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses…. I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country,” she said.
Proponents congratulate, opponents condemn
Prior to final public hearings and the board’s vote on curriculum standards, some religious leaders had voiced concern about proposed language that would downplay constitutional protections for religious freedom.
“Our Founding Fathers understood that the best way to protect religious liberty in America is to keep government out of matters of faith,” said Roger Paynter, pastor of First Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.
“But this state board appears hostile to teaching students about the importance of keeping religion and state separate, a principle long supported in my own Baptist tradition and in other faiths.”
Reactions to the final vote from religious-liberty groups that advocate strong church-state separation were swift. Baptist minister Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, issued a statement shortly after the vote saying, “I hope people will not misunderstand this as an act favorable to religion. This ill-advised action makes it imperative that citizens express their outrage over this decision and their desire for textbook publishers to be true to the mission of quality education and the facts of history.”
In California, a state Senate committee has already approved a bill that would require education officials in that state to look out for possible influences that the Texas standards might have on textbooks used there.
But some conservative Christian groups hailed the vote as a victory for religious freedom.
“The new addition to have students compare and contrast ‘separation of church and state’ with the actual words of the Constitution is an excellent idea and will be a real service to the students,” said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Institute. “It takes a true liberal extremist to oppose students reading the Constitution.”
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard. Associated Baptist Press Managing Editor Robert Marus contributed to this story.
Previous ABP stories:
Religious leaders speak out against new Texas textbook standards (5/13/2010)
Gaddy urges textbook publishers to ignore new Texas standards (3/22/2010)
Baptists decry Texas board’s votes on textbook standards (3/16/2010)