Separation of Church and State Board of Education

The buck got passed on constitutional separation of church and state once again as the State Board of Education approved general guidelines for an elective Bible course in Texas schools.

The authority for this came from a 2007 bill permitting the course and allowing the SBOE to determine the requirements for the course so that they would avoid lawsuits from constitutional violations. But the SBOE effectively abdicated their statutory responsibility by adopting a general set of guidelines because they "don't want to stifle what [school districts] are doing in classrooms," as board member Cynthia Dunbar (R-Richmond) stated.

Personally, that would make the first time in a long time that I've heard of constitutional rights being passed over because they're inconveniently "stifling." Wait — no, I suppose it doesn't. But I haven't heard, at least yet, of a "war on classroom secularism" being declared and science teachers being deported to Gitmo, so I'm not sure the same excuse is applicable.

Perhaps I shouldn't joke about that.