Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public schools students under proposals that are putting the state at the center of another contentious wrangling over the role of religion in classrooms.<\/p>\n
Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours Tuesday before the state education board arguing about the reading list for the state\u2019s 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th-graders. The debate is part of widening efforts in the U.S. to incorporate religion in schools, mostly in Republican-led states, driving legislation<\/a> and legal action<\/a>.<\/p>\n kAm}2E:@?2==J[ !C6D:56?E s@?2=5 %CF>A 92D A=65865 E@ AC@E64E 2?5 6IA2?5 C6=:8:@FD 6IAC6DD:@? \ud83d\ude15 AF3=:4 D49@@=D] p?5 %6I2D[ 2 C65 DE2E6 E92E \ud83d\ude00 9@>6 E@ 23@FE @?6 \ud83d\ude15 `_ @7 E96 ?2E:@?\u2019D AF3=:4 D49@@= DEF56?ED[ @7E6? 96=AD D6E E96 286?52]k^Am<\/p>\n kAm%6I2D 3642>6 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^E6I2D\\AF3=:4\\D49@@=D\\492A=2:?D\\C6=:8:@?\\cd`7h`ch6gdegg55`ab_6h455e4aeh3_QmE96 7:CDE DE2E6k^2m E@ 2==@H 492A=2:?D[ \ud83d\ude15 a_ab] p?5 ;FDE =2DE J62C[ 2 #6AF3=:42?\\=65 >2?52E6 E92E E96 %6? r@>>2?5>6?ED 36 5:DA=2J65 \ud83d\ude15 AF3=:4 D49@@=D k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^E6?\\4@>>2?5>6?ED\\E6I2D\\D49@@=D\\7`ef`bdda_bda`a4c4dcb_6hgg5747gaQmE@@< 67764Ek^2m \ud83d\ude15 E96 DE2E6[ 2=E9@F89 2C@F?5 `a 5@K6? 5:DEC:4ED E@@< E96> 5@H? 3642FD6 @7 2 =2HDF:E]k^Am<\/p>\n kAmqFE H9:=6 E96 5632E6 @G6C %6I2DV C625:?8 =:DE 4@F=5 92G6 ?2E:@?2= :>A=:42E:@?D[ E@ E96 DA62<6CD E96 :DDF6 3@:=65 5@H? 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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public schools students under proposals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,91986,30756,163,490,1968,4119,1499],"class_list":{"0":"post-239716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-bible-stories-reading-list","12":"tag-church-and-state","13":"tag-education","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-religion","16":"tag-schools","17":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}