Texas public school boards and charter school governing bodies have until March 1 to determine whether they will set aside time for students and staff to pray or read the Bible under a law passed last year as Senate Bill 11.
As the deadline approaches, faith leaders across the state are lobbying school boards both in support of and opposition to the measure.
Pastor Hernan Castano, senior pastor at Iglesia Rios De Aceite in west Houston, said he believes schools should help reinforce the role of prayer in students’ lives, though he emphasized that parents and churches should take the lead.
“We’ve seen how children have lost their sense of direction, how much violence has gone to the schools,” Castano said. “And I think people need to realize that this wasn’t the case when prayer was back in the schools before it got taken away. We need to get prayer back into school.”
Castano, who recently became director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, said the group is sending letters to school boards to stress the importance of adopting the policy.
The lead sponsor of SB 11 in the Texas House, Republican state Rep. David Spiller, said constituents had expressed concerns that opportunities for voluntary prayer and religious reading had diminished over time.
“I’d heard from a lot of constituents that they felt like, over the years, the opportunity for students and employees in schools to participate in voluntary prayer or reading of the Bible or other religious texts … had deteriorated,” Spiller said.
Spiller said the law allows districts to opt in or decline participation. If adopted, schools must provide a space outside instructional time for daily voluntary prayer or religious reading.
“First of all, the school district has to say, ‘Are we going to participate in this, or are we not?’ If they don’t, the end of story,” Spiller said. “If they do, then they provide a place outside the instructional time period for students and staff at each campus to do this on a daily basis.”
He added that participation requires consent from staff members or parents of students and is designed to avoid contact with those who choose not to take part.
“It is specifically designed to not be in contact with or earshot of anyone that chooses not to participate,” Spiller said. “This bill is carefully drafted to respect everyone’s rights, whether you choose to participate or whether you don’t.”
However, some faith leaders argue the policy risks violating First Amendment protections regarding the separation of church and state.
“Even if you have an opt out or an opt in, when you’re using the blunt instrument of government, you are advocating for the role of religion in a child’s life who does not have the agency to make a free choice,” said the Rev. George Mason, a retired Baptist pastor from Dallas and president of Faith Commons. “There’ll be pressure from peers … potentially even pressure from parents.”
Supporters of SB 11 have maintained the law does not favor any particular religion. The Rev. Laura Mayo, senior minister at Covenant Church in Houston, disagreed, pointing to public remarks by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton referencing the Lord’s Prayer.
“When Paxton suggested that there should be a prayer, he said … the Lord’s Prayer offered by Jesus Christ,” Mayo said. “So, how is that not a privileging of Christianity?”
More than 160 faith leaders across Texas have signed an open letter produced by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty urging school boards not to adopt the policy. The letter warns of potential consequences for students who choose not to participate.
“Students who do not opt in might be bullied or ostracized, and students may feel pressure to opt in to gain favor and time with teachers or coaches,” the letter states. “State-sponsored prayer time will also cause division among students based on their religious beliefs.”
