Gay Today: World

Bible History Courses Dropped from Florida's Public Schools

Compiled By GayToday

PFAW President Ralph G. Neas

Tallahassee, Florida—Florida officials have responded to People for the American Way Foundation's January 13 report on its year-long investigation of the state's "Bible History" courses.

The Department of Education has announced that it is withdrawing state approval for unconstitutional "Bible History" high school courses and is creating two completely new Humanities courses that conform to the Constitution, if implemented properly by the local school districts.

"This is a victory for Florida's taxpayers and school children. The 'Bible History' approach was hopelessly flawed and rightly abandoned," said Ralph G. Neas, PFAWF President.

Neas added:

"This is an important rebuff to organizations that are pushing unconstitutional religious indoctrination in the nation's public schools." In letters delivered with the report in January, Neas and PFAWF Florida Director Lisa Versaci had urged Governor Jeb Bush, Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher and the fourteen school superintendents to drop the courses.

The new course descriptions - if they are followed by the local school districts - should end the unconstitutional practices. These new descriptions explicitly recognize that different religions interpret the Bible differently, rather than present the Bible solely from a Christian perspective.

They take a literary approach to the Bible, in contrast to the state's former course descriptions which treated the Bible as history. This "Bible History" approach has been found unconstitutional by the courts and was therefore criticized in PFAWF's report.

Versaci said:

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
What Those School Vouchers Could Mean to You

Catholic Archbishop Told: 'End School-Based Bias'

Florida -- Anti-Impeachment Rally: 'No Nookie for the GOP!'

Related Sites:
People For the American Way Foundation

GayToday does not endorse related sites.

"The Department of Education has taken an important step. Now it's up to the local school districts to follow that lead. The local school districts must completely change not only their curricula and the way they are teaching the courses, but also the materials used in them."

She said that it will be critically important for the schools to participate in the summer teacher training that the Department is offering, and that they may also want to seek the Department's guidance about where to find appropriate course materials. PFAWF plans to continue to monitor the school districts.

The watchdog organization believes that comparative religion and similar courses that place the Bible in the context of other religious traditions are the best approach for high school students. However, any Florida school district that wants to teach a Bible-related course should carefully follow the state's prescribed framework.

PFAWF's report, The Good Book Taught Wrong: 'Bible History' Classes in Florida's Public Schools, found that schools in fourteen school districts were using the Bible to promote Christian faith formation, presenting it as a history textbook and relying on rote memorization exercises to indoctrinate students, instead of encouraging analysis and critical thinking.

Read the Report:
www.pfaw.org/issues/liberty/florida-bible.shtml