Rachel Woods

Changes in Tennessee and Georgia laws now allow local schools to offer Bible courses without the need to seek year-by-year approval, educators from both states said.

“If the state makes it part of the state curriculum, that takes it off the special-course list,” said cq Michael Oreto, a guidance counselor for Bledsoe County Schools in Tennessee. “I would not have to apply for a special permit to teach it every year. Right now, we are using a curriculum that I have to send in for approval each year.”

Tennessee lawmakers this year voted to have the state Department of Education develop a curriculum and approve textbooks for Bible classes. Under current law, schools may offer Bible class as an elective with approval of local school boards and state education officials. The class will be an elective under the new law and will remain an educational — not devotional — course.

In Georgia schools, under a law that took effect this year, educators may offer Bible classes as electives that are part of the state curriculum. The Bible must be the main text but educators also may use one of two state-approved textbooks. Before the Georgia law, school districts had to seek individual approval for the classes.

While states have moved to help schools avoid legal entanglements from teaching the Bible, local school boards are on their own when it comes to funding. Costs, and added academic requirements in both states, mean that few school districts are offering Bible classes.

“We try to leave it to principals to give them some control of their schools,” said cq Patty Hart, vice chairwoman of the Walker County, Ga., Board of Education. “We give them their allotment (of state money) and they make the decisions.”

CORE COURSES COME FIRST

But the allotment usually covers required courses and electives associated with the number of hours required to fulfill a subject area.

In Tennessee, students must take four years of math to graduate. Two or three math courses are required by subject, such as Algebra I and geometry. Students can choose from math electives to meet the required third or fourth year.

“I’m sure that people want to offer Bible,” Ms. Hart said. “But it’s like art, music and physical education. We used to pay for those out of local funds, and we had to cut that several years ago.”

Cleveland City Schools offers a Bible class at the district’s only high school. The class was reinstated this year after several years’ absence, according to teacher Wanda Dent.

“Students requested it so we put it back,” she said.

Ms. Dent said students asked for the class because of the analogies used on standardized state tests and Advanced Placement exams.

“We did the research, and we found that 60 percent of the analogies come from the Bible,” she said. “In this country, you can’t go to too many places without running into references to the Bible.”

In both states, education representatives said the new laws have cleared several hurdles for local districts to offer Bible classes.

Tennessee Department of Education spokeswoman Rachel Woods said she believes more schools will offer Bible classes in coming years.

“You will probably see it offered a lot more once the course design is completed,” Ms. Woods said. She said about six districts out of 136 offer Bible courses. In Southeast Tennessee, Bledsoe, Hamilton and Polk County schools, along with Cleveland, offer them.

In North Georgia, Dade County High School offered the course in the first semester this year. No teacher was available for the second semester, graduation coach Bryon Ballard said.

“It was a popular course, and we had to do some reshifting to find electives for the kids who had signed up for the second offering,” Mr. Ballard said. “But because we needed all the teaching slots, we had more than 200 freshmen enter this year, we had to take (the Bible teacher) for PE class.”

Matt Cordoza, spokesman for Georgia’s department of education, said demand and the ability to find qualified teachers will influence the course’s availability.

“Just like any other elective, it will be a matter of capacity,” Mr. Cordoza said. “Will we see more students taking the course? It’s hard to say. I think we’ve seen some offering across the state this year but it’s hard to measure it this first year.”