Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Broad guidelines for a Bible course in Texas high schools were approved by the State Board of Education on Friday, but board members delayed action on specific curriculum requirements until the attorney general has ruled whether all school districts must offer the course.

Board members approved a rule establishing the elective course on a 13-2 vote. The course is supposed to be available in high schools by the fall of 2009.

Critics said the failure to approve specific content standards for the course could lead to some teachers promoting their own religious views or cause other constitutional problems that result in lawsuits against school districts.

But most board members said they wanted to see how Attorney General Greg Abbott rules on the question of whether the Bible course law passed by the Legislature in 2007 requires all school districts to offer the class in high school. Some lawmakers have said the class must be available in all high schools, while others said it is a local decision.

"Until we get the attorney general's opinion back, how can we know how to proceed?" said board member Bob Craig, R-Lubbock, echoing the views of the majority. "We might be taking action and doing something that we will have to change based on the attorney general's ruling."

About two dozen high schools in the state already offer an elective course on the Bible, but there currently are no state guidelines for how the class must be taught and what material should be covered.

Board member Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, warned that leaving the requirements too vague could invite problems if some schools and teachers go beyond the original intent of the law, which called for a course that studies the Bible's impact on history and literature.

"This is pretty broad language when you're talking about a Bible course," Ms. Hardy said. "Brother so-and-so could come up with whatever he wanted for his Bible class, and there would be no restrictions on what he could teach."

Ms. Hardy offered an amendment to specify that the course was for historical and literary purposes, but she could not win majority support for her proposal.

Board member Terri Leo, R-Spring, pointed out the course was elective and that parents and students could decline to take the course if they disagreed with its contents.

Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network, a group that often spars with social conservatives on the state board, urged the panel to adopt specific content standards now "to protect the religious freedom of students" and avoid "costly lawsuits."

However, Jonathan Saenz of the Free Market Foundation, which defended the Ector County school district in Odessa in a lawsuit against its Bible course, applauded the education board for not embracing specific content requirements.