Doug Stromberg

PDF: Bible in schools legislation

Several Tennessee lawmakers consider students in Hamilton and Bradley counties to be some of the luckiest in the state since they are among a small percentage able to study the Bible in public school.

State Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, wants to afford that opportunity to all Tennessee students. He has introduced a bill that would give every school system a standardized, government-sponsored curriculum to study the Bible in a non-religious, academic context.

“We are raising the most biblically illiterate generation in American history,” Sen. Herron said, noting that only five of 95 Tennessee counties offer such courses. “In order for Tennesseans to be well-educated, they need to understand more about the Bible and its impact on various parts of our lives.”

But some Hamilton County teachers are concerned that a state law might interfere with a locally successful program.

At Soddy-Daisy Middle School, teacher Jennifer Rigsby worries that a state-sponsored curriculum would limit her ability to design classes with other Bible-history teachers in the county.

“I work with the other teachers and I have greater flexibility,” she said.

Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, is opposed to the bill and said he has received a number of calls from constituents with the same position.

“I think we’ve already got a good program here in Hamilton County, and I don’t know how involved the state needs to be in that anyway,” Rep. McCormick said.

The bill is scheduled for debate in the Senate education committee today and has been put on next week’s House K-12 subcommittee calendar, according to Rep. McCormick.

Regardless of the outcome, local educators speculate that Hamilton County’s privately funded Bible history classes would continue as they have since 1922.

A Chattanooga-based organization called the Public School Bible Study Committee raises money from individuals, businesses and churches and offers it to Hamilton County Schools. The funds, nearly $1 million this year, pay the salaries and benefits of the county’s 16 teachers who teach Bible courses in 19 middle and high schools.

Joey Tolbert, a Bible history teacher at Ooltewah Middle School, said she would like to have more than a brief outline on what to teach.

“They really need to develop a textbook, or a booklet at least,” she said. “Right now we have the Bible and a curriculum of some sort, but it’s kind of vague.”

David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, a Nashville-based group that lobbies for religious freedoms, noted that school districts might want to adopt different textbooks for the classes.

“It’s best to leave it to local control,” Mr. Fowler said.

Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, said she wants to protect individual rights while maintaining constitutionality.

“Our concern is in the implementation,” Ms. Weinberg said. “We think that to do it right, you have to have trained teachers and the appropriate textbook.”

If a state-sponsored curriculum is approved, Hamilton County still could apply to the state for a special course code to continue teaching Bible history as it currently exists, said Rachel Woods, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.

“They would have to specify why they needed a separate course that was different than what the state had developed,” she said.

Tennessee maintained a formal Bible curriculum until the early 1980s, Ms. Woods said, at which point a number of low-enrollment electives were dropped, including Bible studies.

But Bible history has always been a popular elective in Hamilton County and nearly 5,000 students took the classes last year, said Ava Warren, the district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Although Dr. Warren isn’t sure how the bill would affect the school system, she said she would “hate to mess up a good thing.”

The classes are so well-received that nine local schools are on the waiting list either to offer Bible history or to move their part-time Bible teacher to full-time, said Doug Stromberg, president of the Bible study committee.

“I’m confident there are others beyond these nine,” he said. “(The schools) see the need for their kids.”

Seventh-grader Hayley Adams, 13, is taking her second Bible history class with Ms. Rigsby, and said she has at least one friend who wants to enroll but can’t for lack of space.

At Sale Creek Middle-High School, Principal Jeff Chastain has his school on the waiting list because of a high demand for the Bible-history courses.

Even if the standardized curriculum is approved, Mr. Chastain said it would be difficult to offer the classes without additional funding, which the bill does not include. It would still be up to individual school systems to adopt the classes and pay for them.

“It’s pretty difficult when people develop a program and there’s no way to fund it,” he said. “It makes it pretty much impossible to implement.”

Sen. Herron said he is convinced the measure has a good chance of passing this year. There would be widespread interest among districts previously afraid of civil rights lawsuits, he said.

But Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, said he believes other issues will take priority as the legislative session comes to a close.

“This is very low on the list (for debate this session),” he said.

Because Bible classes have already been proven constitutional — a point reinforced by a state attorney general’s opinion issued April 1 — Mr. Stromberg asked why a state-sponsored curriculum was necessary.

“It makes me kind of wonder why we need the legislation,” he said.

Comments