The state law, which mandates Texas schools to display The Ten Commandments, was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals back in April of this year. Texas Value’s Johanthan Covey says now they are just making sure all school districts are within compliance.
October 13th, Texas Values distributed an updated legal guidance letter to all TX public school districts urging superintendents and school board members to accept qualifying donated posters and to address compliance deficiencies.
The nonprofit announced they are donating over 100 Ten Commandment posters to Bloomington ISD, Southeast of Houston, near Victoria. “One hundred ten posters are sort of a practical example of that commitment. Hey, we welcome others to join that effort. There is still plenty of classrooms and school districts that need to comply.” He said.
Covey says passing legislation is important, but implementation is necessary. Some school districts seem to be dragging their feet. “We are trying to make compliance straight forward. This is a legal responsibility, and some school boards say they we have to review the posters for legal compliance- which is fine, but that shouldn’t take long. A school board can’t simply vote this away. This is Senate Bill 10 and it’s codified, so it has to be complied with.” Covey said.
He says the organization launched a ‘Ten Commandments Compliance Tracker’ (Texas Values Compliance Tracker) and you can see who is in compliance and who is not. So far, preliminary numbers show approx. 27 percent are fully complying, 23 percent- partially and 50 percent have not.
Despite the law was appealed, then upheld most recently, Covey, says there is no injunction keeping the law out of effect, so school districts need to comply immediately.