The Devil and the Details

State Senator Roy Herron has introduced a bill which would allow the state Board of Education to approve a curriculum public schools could use to study the Bible.

What's new about this bill? It's not that it allows the Bible to be taught in public schools. That is already permitted... so long as it's read as literature or cultural narrative and not presented in a devotional way, the Bible is fair game in public schools. What's new is that the bill allows the state board to approve a curriculum for use.
 
This will be an interesting debate to follow. On one hand, public education is (and, I'd argue) should be closely reflective of local values and norms. On the other, Tennessee districts have not shown themselves to be particularly reliable in protecting the separation of church and state, at least not when the church is a Christian one. The question then becomes one of governmental protection. Are we better to have identified curricula which we are certain to not violate the First Amendment, but which infringe on local board's authority to develop their own, or to require students and families to police local school boards one by one?

Personally, I fall toward the former. The burden carried by an individual student whose protections are threatened is significant enough. Constitutional protections should be guaranteed... in other words, students should not have to fight for them as often as they do. While a state-approved curriculum may remove some local authority, it protects the more important interest of assuring students' civil rights. Local authority is critical in some cases... even in those for which we've been asleep at the wheel. Constitutional protections are simply more essential- although I'll wish it weren't the case, if it takes state-level intervention to assure that every student in a Tennessee public school is assured the equal protection of the law, I'll support it.

-McTamaney

Comments

[Jim Grinstead]

One of the interesting debates would be the text -- what Bible would be used? How many votes would there be for the Jefferson Bible?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

[Randy Smith]

Usually, in courses like this, students use whatever translation of the Bible they prefer for the Biblical readings.