Texas faces debate over religion in schools

An article in today's New York Times highlights a brewing conflict in Odessa, Texas over a new "nonsectarian" Bible curriculum that a North Carolina-based organization is pushing to schools nationwide.

"But in Odessa, where the school board has not decided on a curriculum, a parent said he found the course's syllabus unacceptably sectarian. He has been waging his own campaign for additional information on where it is being taught.

"Someone is being disingenuous; I'd like to know who," said the parent, David Newman, an associate professor of English at Odessa College who has made a page-by-page analysis of the 270-page syllabus and sent e-mail messages to nearly all 1,034 school districts in Texas."

With all of the issues facing education and our children's health, Southern progressives need to work with members of the faith community to help improve the standard of life and education for our children in spite of those who seek to use public schools as the platform for a "disingenuous" conservative political agenda.