Texas Legislature Wants To Force Religion On Children

 The following is an op-ed by Paul Waldman in The Washington Post:

As everyone knows, there is no more effective way to shape the behavior of young people than through state-mandated posters on their classroom walls. At least that’s what Republicans in the Texas legislature seem to believe, which is why they’re advancing a bill requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state.

Texas is growing more purple with each passing year, which is exactly why the Republican-dominated legislature is reasserting the right’s political and cultural power with ever more radically conservative laws. Part of that effort is a series of bills meant to impose not just religion but Christianity into public schools.

One bill would allow schools to mandate “a period of prayer and Bible reading on each school day.” Another says school personnel must be allowed to “engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty.” Yet another would allow schools to replace school counselors with “chaplains” — no training or certification required. The centerpiece is the bill requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments, which has already passed the state Senate.

That bill, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico told me, “not only violates our American values, but I think it violates my Christian values.”

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Talarico brings a unique perspective to this debate. He’s young and progressive, used to be a teacher, and is also a Christian who is enrolled in a Presbyterian seminary in Austin.

Talarico recently went viral for a series of clips in which he questioned Rep. Candy Noble, the bill’s Republican sponsor in the House. The exchange highlighted how when challenged, conservatives often retreat to preposterous arguments claiming that they have no religious motives when they push Christianity into the classroom.

When Talarico asked Noble how a Hindu or atheist student would feel when seeing “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” on their classroom wall, she said, “I am hoping that when they see that, they will look at it and wonder about our Founding Fathers.”

That might make one wonder whether Noble is familiar with the Ten Commandments herself. The first four are about devotion to the god of the Old Testament, instructing readers to reject all other gods, to make no graven images, not to take this god’s name in vain, and to keep the sabbath.

Christian nationalism rejects our legal and cultural tradition of religious pluralism. It holds that the United States was a Christian nation from its founding and that Christianity should be the basis of public policy and political power.

Prominent national Republicans are increasingly emphasizing Christian-nationalist themes. Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) declared in a speech last year that “without the Bible, there is no America.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released an ad claiming that he was literally created by the almighty to do His work in politics.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last year, “We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders but the words of God because He wrote the Constitution.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) calls herselfa “proud Christian nationalist.”

The right is surely growing more focused on creating a kind of Christian cultural hegemony in public institutions in part because Christianity is in a steep decline. Three decades ago, about 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian. Today, the number has fallen to the low 60s and the decline is likely to continue.

Something similar is happening politically in Texas. Republicans have a lock on power, yet the state continues inexorably moving away from them, culturally and demographically.

“I think this is the death rattle of a dying worldview,” Talarico told me. “In some ways, the far right is like a wounded animal here in Texas. They know that Texas is becoming increasingly diverse, Texas is becoming younger, and that new Texas is not going to stand for these extreme policies.”

Posting the Ten Commandments in schools is an obvious violation of Supreme Court precedent. But a series of recent decisions culminating last year in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which allowed a public high school football coach to hold prayer sessions on the fieldafter games, has convinced the right that the court will greenlight almost any injection of Christianity into public institutions.

A legal challenge to these Texas measures could become the vehicle for the Supreme Court to once and for all banish the establishment clause to a constitutional netherworld, where the court essentially decrees that it has no force. It’s the same place the court deposited the “well-regulated militia” clause of the Second Amendment.

But Talarico insists that people like him can change minds and fight back. “Christians like me have a moral obligation to speak out,” he told me. Nothing less than the possible repeal of the idea that America is a religiously pluralistic nation is at stake.

85% Of American Students Attend Public Schools

The chart above is from the Gallup Poll. The numbers are from polls done in August of each year from 2001 through 2017 of random national samples of 4,572 adults, with a 2 point margin of error.

It shows that about 85% of America's school children attend public schools -- while 9% attend private schools, 3% attend parochial (religious) schools, and 3% are home schooled. And I would submit that most of those attending public schools receive a very good education.

Sadly though, there are still some in this country who don't like public education. They want to pull money out of public school funding, and give it to private schools in the form of vouchers. They claim this would allow students to get a better education because they could choose what school they (or their parents) want to attend. I think that's a false argument, and one meant to damage our excellent public school system.

Vouchers to attend private schools would be great for rich and middle class parents. They would get a lot of the money they spend on private schools back. But it would not be good for poor and most working class families. Those vouchers do not cover all the cost of attending a private school, and those parents would not be able to pay the difference.

Vouchers would just take money away from our public schools, and would not help the students needing help now (those attending underperforming and underfunded schools). It would likely just create a two-tiered school system in this country -- one for the rich and middle class students, and another for the poor and working class and rural students (who would suffer from less funding for their schools).

And I doubt that education would improve anyway, since charter schools (publicly-funded private schools) have not proven to give any better an education than public schools.

There are a small number of public schools that struggle to give students a good education. We need to improve those schools -- not damage all public schools by taking money away from them to give to private schools.

There are those who say we can't afford to do that. That's a ridiculous lie. A voucher system would not be any cheaper in the long run than adequately funding all of our public schools. And if we can afford to wage endless and unnecessary wars, and give huge tax cuts to the rich and corporations, then we can afford to give all of our children an excellent (and free) public education.

We don't lack the money -- only the political will. And that is shameful.