Texas Senate approves bill to put prayers in public schools
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Tuesday the Texas Senate discussed a pair of bills to introduce religion -- primarily Christianity -- into Texas public schools. Senate Bill 11 (SB 11) -- allowing prayer in school, passed -- while Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) -- requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in the classroom -- was left on the doorstep of passage.
Prayer in schools
The Texas Senate passed SB 11 on Tuesday with a 23-7 vote margin. While the bill wouldn't require prayer in all public schools, school districts would be allowed to "adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day."
If a district were to approve this policy through a vote of their board of trustees, the prayer session would require a consent form from the student's parent to participate. Any employees who wish to participate would also have to sign a consent form. The consent form would waive the parent's/employee's right to sue the school district regarding their policy.
Under SB 11, prayers could not come in over the intercom system and prayer time could not happen in the place of instructional time.
“Thank you President Trump and Lt. Governor Patrick for making prayer in public schools a top priority," State Sen. Mayes Middleton, the author of SB 11, said in a statement. "There is no such thing as 'separation of church and state’ in our Constitution, and recent Supreme Court decisions by President Trump’s appointees reaffirmed this. The goal of this bill is to promote freedom of religion for teachers and students in the place where they spend most of their time—school.”
SB 11 will now go to the Texas House for consideration
Ten commandments in classrooms
By a 20-10 vote, SB 10 was sent to engrossment, the last stage before getting a final vote in the Senate.
SB 10 would require all public school classrooms to include a poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments, authorizing the use of district funds to pay for the addition. The poster or framed copy must be at least 16 inches wide by 20 inches tall and be "legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom."
Unlike SB 11, there would be no option for classrooms to not display the Ten Commandments, and teachers would be legally required to accept a privately donated poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments if they did not already have one in their classroom.
SB 10 still needs a final vote to be sent to the Texas House.