In a House Public Education hearing on Monday, Rep. James Talarico repeatedly challenged Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath regarding content in public school curricula that he argued amounts to religious indoctrination. The exchange involved discussion of the implementation of House Bill 1605 relating to public school instructional materials.
Talarico didn’t object to teaching Texas students about religion. “Students should learn about the major world religions in school,” said Talarico. “They need it to understand the world, to understand literature, understand their culture, and understand other cultures.” But Talarico expressed concern that Christianity was being unconstitutionally favored by the state of Texas.
“Is it true that the state of Texas bought an elementary school reading curriculum from a national publisher and made changes to that curriculum?” Talarico asked.
“I think generally, yes,” responded Morath.
“Is it true that the original curriculum included lessons on the major world religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam, in addition to Christianity?” asked Talarico.
Morath responded, “I think so, but I didn’t read the entire set, so I’d have to ask our team…I remember seeing some of that content.”
Talarico continued, “Is it true that the state of Texas, in this new curriculum, in those revisions, removed the lesson on Islam?”
Morath hedged, at first, asserting that he wasn’t sure “the pilot materials ever actually included those lessons.” Morath continued, “I don’t know that I can quantify with precision in this hearing what the breakdown is by different religious traditions or major world religions.”
Talarico continued to press and suggested strongly that other major world religions were given short shrift by Texas, saying, “and again, I’m not talking about passing references, I’m talking about lessons…”
Morath continued to hedge, saying, “and again I would have to go through and, like, quantify…the thing to bear in mind is that this is still a reading language arts product.”
“And is it true,” Talrico continued, “that the state of Texas added multiple sections on Christianity and wrote new lessons teaching Bible stories to elementary school children?”
“There were changes to a variety of the reading passages,” Morath responded. “Some of those lessons reference common stories of a religious nature.”
“And a kindergarten rule telling the story of the Sermon on the Mount?”
“There is a kindergarten lesson on the golden rule, yes.”
“About five paragraphs out of seven are on the Sermon on the Mount,” asserted Talarico regarding the section on the golden rule — to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Talarico continued, “Is it true that the state of Texas deleted every mention of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad from the new curriculum despite him being the most central figure in a religion practiced by half a million Texans?”
“I don’t actually know the answer to that question,” replied Morath.
Talarico confirmed that those mentions had, indeed, been removed.
“I’ll take your word for it,” responded Morath.
Talarico then turned, in apparent frustration, to Public Education Chair Brad Buckley, “it might be helpful to have someone who knows the details of the curriculum at some point…”
Rep. Talarico continued to ask about Christian beliefs in the curriculum, often presented as facts. “The reason I’m asking is, as you know, commissioner, I’m a former Texas public school teacher. I’m also a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. And so I can tell you there is a difference between teaching and preaching, and in my opinion, these passages, which appear at length throughout the curriculum — I’m surprised you don’t know about them — in my reading they are preaching.”
An observer present at the hearing remarked to a reporter for RA News regarding Commissioner Morath, “he’s just being evasive. This is a thinly veiled attempt to insert Christian Nationalist dogma into the public school curriculum and he doesn’t want to address that.”
Talarico continued, “under federal law, schools can teach the Bible as an academic text, but not in a devotional way. In other words, public schools are not Sunday schools.”
Eventually, Talarico moved on to the legal issues involved. “I want to ask Constitutional questions. Does the separation of church and state appear in this new curriculum?” When Morath asked for clarification, Talarico responded, “does this new curriculum teach students about the establishment clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits the government from establishing a state religion?”
Morath responded that based on public feedback, “verbatim language is getting added to that lesson…the actual language of the establishment clause.”
“Are you worried that if Texas public school teachers use this new state curriculum, those teachers will violate the establishment clause by teaching Bible stories in public schools?” Talarico asked.
Morath quickly responded, “no.”
“Then why does the bill,at the bottom of page five,” continued Talarico, “explicitly give teachers who use this new curriculum immunity for violating the establishment clause of the United States Constitution?”
Morath answered, “I think one would posit that there’s a variety of things that cause folks to, to have hesitation, and this is essentially meant to take that off the table.”
Talarico responded, “If there’s no concern about it, why would we add it to the bill? We don’t add any other immunity from any other parts of the constitution?”
“I am for high-quality curriculum, but not when it violates the United States Constitution,” said Talarico.
But Talarico explained that he is primarily concerned with how students of other religions will be marginalized by these curriculum changes. He invoked the previously-discussed golden rule and said Texas should treat students from other religions as we would want to be treated. “If I were them, I wouldn’t want the government elevating one religion over my own, or over my family’s religion.”
“As I said earlier,” Talarico remarked in closing, “I believe public schools are not Sunday schools. Or as Governor Abbott is fond of saying, ‘schools are for education, not indoctrination.’”
