West Texas District To Develop Own Curriculum
ODESSA, Texas (AP) – Each side in a lawsuit over a West Texas school district’s Bible curriculum claimed victory Wednesday after a mediator’s proposal gained final approval.
The Ector County Independent School District can continue to offer a Bible course but its course work will be developed by a committee of seven local educators appointed by the superintendent.
The lawsuit challenged class material produced by the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. A mediator in Dallas developed the proposal and the district trustees voted Wednesday to approve the plan.
Plaintiffs approved it earlier this week. The curriculum must meet criteria set by state law and the class will be offered begining in the 2008-09 school year.
The district “will continue to offer a Bible course, it will be a curriculum of its own choosing, it may use portions of any existing curriculum as a resource, and the Bible will be the main textbook for the course,” Liberty Legal Institute’s Hiram Sasser said in a statement.
The institute represented the district. The lawsuit, filed in May on behalf of eight parents in the district, alleged the Bible course violated their religious liberty. Mediation began earlier this year.
The agreement, said T. Jeremy Gunn of the American Civil Liberties Union, is a victory for putting religious education in parents’ hands.
“It is unacceptable for government officials to decide which religious beliefs are true and which are not and then use the public school system as a means of proselytizing children,” he said in a statement.
The state and national ACLU and the People for the American Way Foundation sued the school district in May. The Ector school board approved the course, a high school elective, by a 4-2 vote in December 2005.
At issue was a Bible course that teaches the King James version using material produced by the North Carolina group. The course uses the Bible as the students’ textbook.
The National Council said its curriculum is used in hundreds of school districts, including more than 50 in Texas. The parents’ suit was dismissed.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
