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NCBCPS Lawsuit On the Way

By stcynic on December 22, 2005.

Odessa, Texas, you're the next contestant on the Federal court, establishment clause game show:

Trustees of the Ector County Independent School District here decided, 4 to 2, on Tuesday night that high school students would use a course published by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools for studying the Bible in history and literature.

The council is a religious advocacy group in Greensboro, N.C., and has the backing of the Eagle Forum and Focus on the Family, two conservative organizations...

David Newman, a professor of English at Odessa College, said he planned to sue the district because the curriculum advocated a fundamentalist Christian point of view.

This is the same curriculum that was hammered by Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor from SMU, in a report he did for the Texas Freedom Network. While they did revise the curriculum in response to Chancey's criticisms, the newer curriculum still has major constitutional problems and is unlikely to survive a court case. You can see Chancey's analysis of the new version of the curriculum here.

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Church and State

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"you're the next contestant on the Federal court, establishment clause game show:"

If only SNL or MAD TV were that urbane and astute, this would make for a great parody segment. "IDEA, TMLC, DI Come on down!"