Texas Senate passes bills allowing time for prayer in schools, requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Senate pushed through a pair of bills that would bring religion back into public school classrooms.
One bill would allow time for students and staff to pray at school.
The other would require the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom.
The North Texas Republican senator who wrote the Ten Commandments bill claims they are part of America’s heritage.
But multiple groups against the bill said it promotes one religion in taxpayer-funded public schools.
The Republican majority Texas Senate voted along party lines to pass a bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school and public charter school classroom.
It requires the commandments to be displayed on a 16x20-inch poster or framed copy, starting with the text, "I am the Lord thy God."
Weatherford Republican State Senator Phil King wrote the bill.
"What SB1515 does is simply says that in every public school classroom in the state of Texas there shall be posted a copy of the Ten Commandments. Prescribes the exact same language of the Ten Commandments, which is on our own capital grounds, which has been approved by the Texas and U.S. Supreme Court," he said.
Public schools would have to display Ten Commandments under bill passed by Texas Senate
The Senate also passed a bill that would set prayer and Bible reading times during the school day.
King said Texas schools had the Ten Commandments in the classroom in the 70s, before a court ruling removed them nationwide in 1980.
He claimed the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a bill like this when they said it was acceptable for a high school football coach in Washington to pray before games.
Multiple education and religious freedom groups testified earlier this month against the bill.
Rocio Fierro-Perez is with the Texas Freedom Network, a state watchdog group comprised of community and religious leaders.
"When you're specifically putting something like the Ten Commandments up on a classroom for all students to see, that's incredibly dangerous because in a state as big as Texas, right, we have people of all kinds of faith," Fierro-Perez said.
He believes the bill is creating a blanket rule that promotes Christianity above other religions.
In another move to install religion in public schools, the state Senate also a bill that calls for public and charter schools to adopt policies setting aside time for students and employees to read the bible "or" other religious texts and to pray.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But you have to treat all religions and all people of different kinds of faith the same," Fierro-Perez said.
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Both bills now head to the state House.
"This is American tradition, if schools in Texas do not have it in their funding to do that, they can accept private dollars for this," King added.
There may be some traction for those bills in the House.
Friday, the House Public Education Committee pushed forward a religious bill allowing schools to hire chaplains instead of counselors.