By David Stippick, Pastor of Community at Peace of Christ Church, is a lifelong resident of Georgetown, Texas
On April 9, the State Board of Education of Texas voted 9-5 to approve a new required reading list for all K-12 students that will go into effect in the 2030 school year. This is in response to the Texas House Bill 1605 passed in the 2023 Legislative session. The bill calls for curriculum that includes religious texts, and that there be one required text per grade. The SBOE went above and beyond, however, developing a list that includes 17-34 texts per grade.
Among other issues, this limits student choice to read on their own using what they’ve learned. It also lists the State of Texas as the author for all the Biblical passages used in the curriculum. There are several reasons I was interested in this vote last week— I have kids in Public School in Texas, I’m a product of Texas Public Schools and I’m a pastor in Texas. I also spent seven hours waiting to testify before the SBOE on Tuesday, April 7.
In mid-March I got an e-mail from the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty letting me know this vote was taking place and giving me the opportunity to meet with others to testify in opposition to the reading list. I’ve gotten information for meetings like this before; there are issues important to me coming up for discussion and vote at city council meetings, local school board meetings and other SBOE and legislative issues when the Texas Legislature is in session, and would I like to share my opinion. I’ve always just passed on the opportunities because I didn’t feel equipped to say anything, and it felt intimidating at every level.
However, when I got the e-mail, I’d just returned from Advocacy in Action conference in Washington D.C. In that week I got to meet other clergy and lay people from around the country, visit the National African American History Museum, the Capitol and the Fredrick Douglass House all as part of understanding the long history of activism in the country. Most of our time was spent learning from Jennifer Hawks, Sharon Felton and others from the CBF Advocacy office and people they know to understand what a meeting with Congressional representatives and their staff can look like, testifying in front of boards, groups/committees and even how to write an Op-Ed! All of these put us in better positions to go back to where we live and work and continue the work of advocacy as members of our communities and faith leaders.
I found myself in a place where there was something going on I felt strongly about, have at least a passing understanding of and the competence to address. I used the short framework we’d practiced writing a testimony with to share my own love of reading, fostered by my ability to explore my own interests and my objection as a minister to Christian texts being used in public school classrooms to the exclusion of any other faith traditions.
While the vote could make any of the hundreds of people who spoke against it feel as though their voice did not matter, I believe it was more important than getting the Board to change their position— though that would have been nice. Advocacy showed teachers, students, parents and community members across the state that there are people like them who do not agree with policies that over-extend teachers, decenter students, stretch budgets and promote the supremacy of any religion over another.