I am going to speak out about this because it is wrong. Currently, some public school districts are receiving financial incentives to adopt a Bible-infused curriculum in Texas public schools although it’s not required (at least not right now). I submitted a testimonial against this at the state level just as a did against the private school voucher plan which takes money from underfunded public schools who are already struggling financially to better-fund private schools.
As a lifelong Christian, church-goer, former Title I public school special educator, and also a former private Christian school educator, I cannot tell you how wrong this is. I believe that Bible-infused curriculum is for private Christian schools only, not public schools. We have children from all kinds of families, different walks of life, from different religions, and non-religious families in public schools. This Bible-infused curriculum is going to alienate and hurt students who do not come from Christian homes and even progressive types of Christian homes. Bible-infused curriculum is unconstitutional and infringes upon religious freedom in a constitutional democracy.
If public schools really want to instill “Christian values” in public school, how about fully-funding our public schools, paying teachers better salaries, providing free breakfast and lunches, better-supporting our students with disabilities, and helping everyone feel welcomed regardless of what their beliefs are the way Jesus did? This isn’t the inclusive love of Jesus. It is Christian Nationalism!!
I believe private school vouchers are even worse than Bible-infused curriculum in public schools. Here is my recent written testimony from this week for the Texas State Board of Education.
Hello, my name is Julie Nichols. I currently work as an Educational Therapist in secular private practice, and I have three young adult children who attended both private and public schools while I taught in various capacities in their schools. Through the first experience, I worked in a Title I rural public school district as a special education teacher while my children attended the same school district with me. Later, I also worked in a middle class affordable private Christian school after the public-school experience which was still difficult for our family to afford. My work in private school paid for the tuition of my children.
Today, I am here to urge the committee to not support Housebill 3 in favor of school vouchers. When I served in the Title I rural public school district as a special education teacher, there was barely enough money to educate the general education students, much less the special education students, many who received additional federal money. My caseload size was well over the standard size, and it was almost impossible to properly serve the students due to a lack of resources. The resources were so minimal for the types of students I had that it prevented safety concerns for the highest need students.
My own children as students and myself as a professional went to a private Christian school setting later during their middle and high school years. We could barely afford it, but by me working in their private schools, my work covered most of their tuition.
I share this because I would never want money which desperately needs to support students in underfunded public schools to pay for tuition in private schools. Most families cannot afford private schools even with voucher money, so it would syphon money away from students who are already in underfunded public school districts, particularly rural and Title I districts. I believe this it is theft. Voucher money would only provide a subsidy for private schools.
Please vote against HB3 to save our public schools, particularly our rural and Title I school districts.
Thank you for your time,
Julie Nichols
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