Since any public school student is allowed to engage in silent prayer at any time of the school day or read their Bible during lunch or any non-instruction time, it was gratifying to see the “Protecting Religious Liberty and Expression in Public Schools Act,” which would have required voluntary Bible study and prayer time, effectively removed from consideration during the remainder of this session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
So unneeded was this legislation that, unlike with many committee votes that are made along party lines, more Republicans on the House Education Committee voted to send it to summer study than voted to keep alive the measure sponsored by a Republican, state Rep. Gino Bulso of Brentwood. All four committee Democrats, including state Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, joined the eight Republicans to send the bill to summer study.
The state Senate had rolled the bill twice to its calendar committee.
One tenet of the House bill would have required that public schools teach the Bible as literature and in a history context. As we wrote in late February, 42 public school districts across the Volunteer State already offer Bible history courses as an elective to students in grades 6 to 12. Any other district that desired also could take it up, perhaps patterning it after Hamilton County’s constitutionally approved course.