Texas Education Board Backs Bible-Infused Lessons in Public Schools

Texas education officials approved in an initial vote on Tuesday a new elementary school curriculum that infuses material drawn from the Bible into reading and language arts lessons, a contentious move that would test the limits of religion’s presence in public education.

The optional curriculum has already drawn protests in Texas, which has emerged as a leader in the ascendant but highly contested push to expand the role of religion in public schools. The new curriculum could become a model for other states.

With the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump promising to champion the conservative Christian movement in his second presidential term, the lessons may also offer a playbook for the White House.

Advocates of religious freedom say the new curriculum is the latest major effort by conservatives to explicitly tie the nation’s history and politics to Christian values. Texas was the first state to allow public schools to hire religious chaplains as school counselors, and the Republican-controlled legislature is expected to try once again to require public-school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Schools have emerged as a focus for clashes over the role of Christian values in public life. In Oklahoma, the state superintendent has begun buying Bibles for classroom use, and sent a video to schools last week inviting students to pray for Mr. Trump. Louisiana is fighting in court over a new state mandate that all classrooms there post the Ten Commandments.

Supporters of the Texas curriculum say that the Bible is a fundamental part of American history and is crucial to students’ knowledge of the world. They argue that children’s literacy skills would suffer without a robust understanding of Bible references because Christian themes are pervasive in American culture.