Bill to Require Bible Elective to be Offered in All WV Schools Introduced
CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) - A bill requiring all schools in West Virginia to provide an elective course on Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament of the Bible, or the New Testament of the Bible has been introduced to the West Virginia Senate.
Senate Bill 252 was submitted on Thursday, January 11th, 2018, by Senator Mike Azinger (R - Wood) and Senator Sue Cline (R - Wyomning).
The bill says that the purpose of the course is to. "Teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy."
(CLICK HERE to read the full bill)
The bill permits students to use a translation of their choice, requires teacher certification, and requires federal and state laws be followed regarding religious neutrality while accommodating the diverse religious views of students.
The bill is in the Committee on Education before going to the floor.
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Kentucky already has a version of this but as the state Dept of Ed noted: "There is a very fine line between a Bible as literature class (or other exclusive religious elective) that meets the constitutional requirements and one that does not. For example, public schools may not use the Bible as literature elective as a way to promote religious beliefs."
Some good guidelines and cautions can be found here so that schools can stay within the constitution:
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However it's abundantly clear that the real intent of these bills is to use the public schools for Christian indoctrination. Bible babblers would prefer that all public schools were madrasas, and no one should be surprised that they want public schools teaching superstition instead of a real education.
Obvious attempts at indoctrination is obvious.
Let's see what happens when the Satanic Temple wants the school to offer elective satanic courses.
A potential problem is monitoring the class to ensure constitutional adherence is met.
That was mentioned in the Facebook comments on the post.
WV's education system is in enough trouble. They recently discussed reducing the number of credits needed to graduate, despite a recent study showing that college-bound seniors aren't ready for college-level instruction. I'm not sure what the outcome of that discussion was.
So obviously, the solution is to knock off a science credit, and require schools to offer Bible classes.
Good grief.
And is WV so rich a state that they can afford to wrangle over these stupid, blatantly unconstitutional bills?
That should be the standard but it's not unfortunately. If one religious text is taught then they all should be, otherwise it's pretty clearly a state preference for Judeo-Christian superstitions.
I wonder what would happen in WV if some parent wanted the Koran included in the bill's requirements since it derives from the same tradition and is quite relevant to world affairs today? I'll bet the bible-babblers would have a stroke.
I predict that if this bill passes, the Satanic Temple will lobby to have schools required to offer elective courses on the Satanic Bible, just to prove a point. Once it's been made clear that they can't legally favor one religion over another, they'll drop the Bible classes.
I would hope that would be the outcome but the legal precedent indicates otherwise. In other words a public school can have an elective course which only studies the bible as long as it's treated academically and not to indoctrinate religion in general or any cult in particular. But of course the people who would teach such courses in a grade school are unable to avoid proselytizing so there will be an inevitable legal challenge.
It's been an ongoing problem in pretty much every state in the bible-babble belt. IIRC, some districts in WV were even busing kids to churches during class time.
I need to rephrase that because it's ambiguous and misleading. The second sentence is what the standard ideally should be but according to precedent it's not. So per SCOTUS a bible-only elective is permissible but there are a number of constraints.
Well, it is WV after all. It's not exactly an intellectual mecca.
See previous statement.
That would explain why their educational system is in trouble. Talk about dumbing down.
"Rich" is not the word I would use. Remember, this is WV after all.
I would think that would change if the school is required to have a Bible elective. It seems to me that that would open up the school to being required to have an elective for the scriptures of pretty much any religion.
I agree.
No doubt they would be outraged.
Watch it, there
. I grew up in West Virginia. Our school system was excellent. I don't recall any Bible classes, elective or otherwise.
One of the things that blew me away in that discussion was the fact that one of my friends who was defending the dumbing-down is a teacher. She said her daughter had trouble working in a science class her senior year, because she was too busy doing a co-op program at a local business. Her daughter planned to go to college. It seems to me that academics would be more important than learning to copy and collate, if one is college-bound, but whatever.
My condolences.
My, how times have changed.
As you said, "good grief."
One would think, right?
You're not kiddin'.
People in our county valued education. Every time there was a vote on an excess levy to support schools, it passed overwhelmingly, until a few years ago. My freshman year of college was a breeze, because many of my junior and senior year high school courses were taught at the same level. In fact, I'd say my high school math teacher was better than any math instructor I had in college.
When I moved to an area of WV where education was not so highly valued, it was a bit of a shock. The high school valedictorian couldn't write a complete, grammatically correct sentence, and considered dropping out of college her freshman year, because she wasn't prepared. I realized then how lucky I'd been.
We sang religious songs in choir, and I recall an elective on mythology, but there were no classes devoted entirely to the Bible, or to any religious text. I recall Bible verses being included in our literature courses, along with Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Jane Austen - not as a moral guide, but as an example of literature.
That's what this bill does. While I think states and school boards are free to set electives, the current lawsuit against the existing practice in Mercer County (which predates this bill) makes the point that there actually are no electives in elementary or middle schools, and that it's erroneous for the school district to call their bible study class an "elective." Plus the course is quite clearly proselytizing Cretinism.
The lawsuit also notes that the bible study practice is decades old. My guess is it dates back to Brown v Board or shortly thereafter, like in the mid-1950s when there was a broad reaction against perceived efforts by Catholic parochial schools to get public funding. That's the origin of Americans United, but the group has evolved far beyond its quasi anti-Catholic beginnings.
I only go there for the caving, not the education. ;)
That's where the bible belongs if utilized in a school. Either that or in a mythology class.
That's just sad.
There's also a legal challenge to WV's longstanding and rather blatantly unconstitutional practice of elective bible classes in public schools. I suspect this new bill might be intended to counter that.
"I think it's a great program mainly because it's the only chance for some of these kids to even see the Bible," said Brett Tolliver, 27. "More importantly, I don't know who it harms. The kids aren't forced to be there."
I can't believe how bad this sounds. It seems that they are pushing this in schools because they are unable to force children to go to church. This will be challenged, regardless of the "elective" aspect. If you can't get your kids to church, it's not the responsibility of the school system to get your child religion.
If they do this then they should allow every other religious book in the schools as well, even Satanist books.
That's the other aspect which the lawsuit notes - not only aren't there really electives in elementary and middle schools in WV, but the social pressure to conform and attend these bible classes is huge. And it's that aspect which SCOTUS is most concerned when it comes to children.
so this is another attempt at a recruitment drive for the religious ? i was told once that its only LGBT community members who "recruit" and "indoctrinate" children... yet the religious keep proving that statement wrong....