House Passes School Prayer Bill in Second Reading

The Texas House on Thursday afternoon passed in second reading a bill that would empower public schools to set aside time during the school day for voluntary prayer and Bible reading times.

Senate Bill 11, sponsored by Galveston Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton, is one of many bills under consideration this session that would lower the wall separating public schools and religion in Texas.

The passage of private school vouchers earlier this session will use public money to subsidize tuition at private schools, many of which are religious. And the House this week also considered Senate Bill 10, which would mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

All three of those proposals were policy priorities this session for Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who serves as the Senate president.

Middleton’s school prayer bill would allow schools to establish designated prayer time that would be voluntary, requiring parental consent for students to participate. It also would stipulate that participating schools require that prayer and “religious text” reading groups — the bill specifies “the Bible or other religious text” — not occur “in the physical presence or within the hearing of a person for whom a signed consent form has not been submitted,” according to the author’s bill analysis. 

Group prayer or religious readings would not substitute for instructional time under Middleton’s proposal.

Still, during Senate committee hearings at the beginning of the session, Democrats and civil liberties groups voiced concerns about whether the existence of such a program could lead students from religious minorities, or agnostic or atheistic students, to feel excluded or contribute to social ostracization.

Legal advocacy groups expect that any school board that adopts such a policy likely will invite a lawsuit to clarify whether prayer programs in public schools violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The vote on the school prayer bill on Thursday was 91-51, with nearly all of its support coming from Republicans. A full roll call of the vote was not immediately available at press time Thursday.