Diego Cisneros

Spearheaded by the Republican Party, the Texas Senate finally passed Senate Bill 10 and 11 on March 18 and 19. These bills require that the Ten Commandments from the Bible be listed in every classroom and that a mandatory prayer period be instituted in Texas public schools. While this is a return to American school tradition, such measures are no longer viable due to the increased diversity of public schools resulting from global interconnectedness. Senate Bill 10 and 11 are unnecessary and have the potential to increase religious intolerance in public schools.

The primary issue with these two bills is that they violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Both of these bills endorse Christianity, which directly violates the constitution. 

Texas is not the first state to enact laws of this nature. Louisiana, Oklahoma and Florida have passed laws that were overtly supportive of Christianity, all of which are facing legal backlash from various sources because they explicitly violate the First Amendment. 

While the First Amendment prohibits the endorsement of any individual religion by Congress, it also prohibits the suppression of any religion. This is significant because it indicates that without Senate Bill 11, Christian students and teachers would still be allowed to pray and read the Bible in school, making these new laws unnecessary. The mandatory Ten Commandments plaque in each classroom instated by Bill 10 is also unneeded given that Christians can observe the commandments without them being mandatorily hung in all classrooms.

In a more broad sense, these bills could lead to increased intolerance or discrimination toward other religions. When one religion is forcibly favored by the government, teachers and especially students who have backgrounds from other religions will feel alienated from their peers. In the case for students, this is due to the dissonance between what they are taught by their parents, and for teachers, what they personally believe fuels their isolation. For such students, Senate Bill 10 and 11 will only negatively affect their mental health, as they are confronted with an unnecessarily glaring difference between them and their fellow students. Meanwhile, teachers who follow other religions may choose not to teach in states with these laws leading to the cultural homogenization of Texas public schools. 

These bills are not the first measures Republicans have taken to increase the involvement of the church in schools. On Sep. 1, 2023, Senate Bill 763 passed, which allowed public schools to hire chaplains as paid or volunteer student counselors. While chaplains are often regarded as paragons of morality, their utility as school counselors especially for non-Christian students is limited. The role within schools that Bill 763 allows chaplains to fill is better suited to specially trained school counselors.

Ultimately, the First Amendment putting strict limits on the ability of the government to endorse religion is valuable because it gives parents the freedom to teach their children whatever religion they choose without students feeling alienated when following their religious traditions.