Texas calls on all public school classrooms to display 10 commandments based on Republican proposals that will begin a massive voting on Saturday and make the nation maximise the nation to impose such duties.
If passed as expected, the measure could draw legal challenges from critics who are deemed a constitutional violation of the separation of church and state.
The Republican-controlled House has given preliminary approval in the final vote expected in the coming days. It sent the bill to the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who indicated that he would sign the law.
“The focus of this bill is to see historically important educationally and judicially for our country,” said Republican Rep. Candy Noble, co-sponsor of the bill.
Louisiana and Arkansas have similar laws, but Louisiana is on hold after a federal judge found it “unconstitutional in its face.”
These measures are one of the efforts in many conservative-led states to insert religion into public schools. The Texas vote ended with a 4-4 tie after the U.S. Supreme Court actually ended with an Oklahoma publicly funded Catholic charter school, and a 4-4 tie after allowing recent high court decisions to flow to religious groups.
Texas legislators also sent measures to Abbott that would allow the district to provide students and staff with time to read religious texts during daily prayer periods or school hours. Abbott plans to sign it.
“We should encourage our students to read and study the Bible every day,” said Republican state Rep. Brent Money. “Children in public schools need prayers and Bible reading.
Advocates demanding 10 commandments in classrooms say they are part of the foundations of the US judicial and educational system and should be exhibited.
Critics, including some Christians and other faith leaders, say 10 commandments and prayer measures violate other people’s religious freedoms.
The Ten Commandments Act requires public schools to post 16 x 20 inch posters or copies of the commandments in a particular English version.
Democrats made several unsuccessful attempts on Saturday to amend a bill that required schools to display other religious texts and provide multiple translations of the commandments.
A letter signed this year by dozens of Christian and Jewish faith leaders opposed the bill, noted that Texas has thousands of students of other faiths that may not have any connection to the Ten Commandments. Texas has nearly 6 million students in around 9,100 public schools.
In 2005, Abbott, as state attorney general, argued before the Supreme Court that Texas could maintain 10 commandments memorials on the Capitol grounds.
Vertuno and Lathan write for the Associated Press.
