A Bible-infused curriculum that Texas approved for public schools over pushback in 2024 will undergo corrections to fix hundreds of errors caught by teachers and education officials after the material was introduced to classrooms.
The curriculum in what is known as the “Bluebonnet” textbook is among Republican-led efforts in the U.S. to incorporate more religious teaching into classrooms. Designed by the state’s public education agency, it is optional for schools to adopt, though they receive additional funding if they do so.
Bluebonnet was approved over concerns from religious scholars that the reading lessons favored Christianity over other faith traditions and pushback from advocacy groups that the materials inappropriately prioritized preaching over teaching.
The State Board of Education voted 8-6 Wednesday to approve the changes — which include correcting factual errors, fixing punctuation and replacing images due to licensing or copyright issues — after some members questioned the high number of errors.
“My concern is that we have failed students this school year who have been utilizing this product,” said board member Tiffany Clark, a Democrat.
Aaron Kinsey, the Republican board chair, asked Clark if she was implying that correcting something seemingly trivial like copyright issues could potentially mean that “we failed our students and they are not going to pass” the state’s annual standardized test administered to public school students.
Clark retorted that something as simple as a typo — especially …