Chisum To Propose Substitute That Would Remove Protections From Bible Bill

We’ve previously told you about HB 1287 by Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa), the bill which would require every public high school to offer courses in the Bible.

The bill is scheduled to come before the Texas House later this afternoon (tonight). And, Chisum has a Floor Substitute which removes EACH AND EVERY PROTECTION put in place by the House Public Education Committee, including:

- requirements that teachers have the appropriate state certification and training to teach classes about the Bible (other courses in the state’s “enrichment curriculum” must meet the same requirements)

- requirements for establishing state curriculum standards and adopting textbooks for such courses (other courses in the state’s “enrichment curriculum” must meet the same requirements)

- stronger protection for the religious freedom of students by more explicitly stating that teachers may not endorse, promote or disfavor any religious or nonreligious faith or religious perspective

The committee also nixed the requirement that school districts offer the courses, leaving it to the discretion of local officials to decide whether they have the support and resources to offer constitutionally acceptable Bible education courses.

All of those protections, and the mandatory requirement, however, are back in full force in the substitute.

To boot, groups like the American Family Association, the Free Market Foundation and Heritage Alliance have been actively running emailing and robo-calling campaigns to urge the Lege to adopt Chisum’s floor sub.

Here is an excerpt from an email from the American Family Association (note some of the strongest wording, which we’ve bolded):

Texas liberals destroying solid school Bible bill

Urge your state rep. to restore HB 1287 to its original solid version

Dear XXXX,

Texas State Rep. Warren Chisum, a respected Chair in the Texas House, has introduced a Bible bill - HB 1287 - which could result in children in over 1100 school districts taking Bible curriculum courses as an elective. The original bill by Rep. Chisum was very good but the liberals amended it in committee and the result is that now the bill is horrible. Your help is needed today to urge your Rep. To follow Rep. Chisum’s leadership on restoring the Bible bill to its original state.

If successful, this approach could catch on across the country. HB 1287 is legally solid and originally proposed to make the course available in all school districts. The amendment stripped that out. Additionally, the original bill kept the Texas Education Association (TEA) out. There are good curricula already out there and available. The amendment puts the TEA and the state in charge of creating a new Bible curriculum, though it has no experience in such, and then forcing that version on every school district. Rep. Chisum’s amendment would fix all of this and it would be a great bill again.

Rep. Chisum is going to fight on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives to change what liberals on the House Public Education Committee did to his Bible bill, HB 1287, and he needs your help.

Don’t let liberals undermine Representative Chisum’s Bible Bill! Follow Rep. Chisum’s leadership on restoring the Bible Bill - HB 1287 - to a safe conservative version.

Chisum’s conservative version gives students the opportunity to learn how the Bible has impacted Western Civilization in history, literature, and the arts.
Chisum’s version would allow each school district to pick from well-tested curriculums already on the market. The curricula are constitutional and available immediately instead of imposing total state control and creating a whole new curriculum by people with no practical experience in Bible Literacy and then forcing their curriculum on EVERY district in Texas. Bad idea.
The Chisum version gives local control to school districts and lets them rely on experts who have been training on these courses for years. Course curricula have a free market incentive to be correct and helpful to the local school districts.
The class is an elective. The high school offers the course in its catalog. If less than 15 sign up, it simply cancels the class. This is frequently done with other electives.
This is an elective class on a piece of literature – not a theology course. The Chisum version provides teacher training on how to teach the class constitutionally and fairly through the curricula providers.
If a new state-dictated curriculum makes a mistake, 1100 schools will stop teaching the course instead of a few districts who need to adjust their curriculum. The existing models have a proven track record and have never been sued.
The Chisum version will set a desirable prototype for other states and increase the demand for such courses which are currently only offered in 8% of school districts.

We’ll be liveblogging this when it comes up later.

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