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Texas Republicans haven’t exactly been subtle about their recent push for more Jesus during the school day.
There are the mandated Ten Commandments posters in every classroom, the curriculum that mentions Christ 383% more than it used to, and the bill that requires every school district to vote on whether to reserve class time for prayer or religious study. Until that last law, school districts haven’t had much say in all of this.
Senate Bill 11, though, puts prayer time in the hands of districts. The state law requires school boards to vote by March 1 on whether they wish to adopt the prayer time policy, and so far in North Texas, districts seem hesitant to say yes.
“We’re really heartened to be seeing [districts turn down SB 11] across Texas. I don’t think that that’s by happenstance,” Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for free speech and pluralism at the ACLU of Texas, told the Observer. “I think that we have seen, on the whole, a lot of school districts reject this policy, and that’s because community members have made clear that this is not what they want for Texas, and this is not what they want for their schools.”
In North Texas, several districts have already rejected SB 11. The Cleburne, Irving and Grand Prairie independent school districts rejected the optional prayer period during school board meetings earlier this week, passing resolutions that emphasize that the religious rights of students are already well established. An additional policy change “would not expand these existing rights and is not necessary for their continued exercise,” a Grand Prairie ISD memo states.
Dallas ISD plans to reject the resolution during the school board’s Feb. 26 meeting. A resolution uploaded to the meeting’s agenda documents suggests that district leaders believe the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is sufficient to ensure students’ religious freedoms.
More than a dozen districts in the Houston area have voted against adopting the prayer period, while one, Magnolia ISD, voted in favor of the new policy. A handful of Austin-area school districts have also rejected the proposal.
Achar was unable to speculate on why state legislators left this proposed prayer period to individual districts. Advocates pushing for more prayer in schools were likely emboldened by a 2019 Supreme Court decision that ruled a football coach could lead prayers after games. While SB 11 requires districts to vote by March 1, it isn’t clear whether the law imposes penalties for failing to meet the deadline.
According to Achar, SB 11 — which advocates say helps fight back against traditional educational systems that bar students from exercising their religious rights — is yet another example of the national push away from the separation of church and state.
“I think the message that we’re seeing is a pretty clear trend of Christian nationalism in Texas public schools,” said Achar. “What makes our Constitution so great is the protection that we have for free exercise and no establishment of one religion. Policies like this, laws like this that we’re seeing all over the state and at many different levels, fly in the face of that and really make us question if we are free to have our own faith here in the state of Texas.”
