Monday, April 22, 2019

Ben Baker's bill to offer Bible classes as electives keeps advancing in legislature

(From Rep. Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City)

We are in week 16 with four more to go in the first half of the Missouri 100th General Assembly, and you may recall a while back when I talked about HB 267, which permits school districts to offer bible instruction classes as an elective.

(Note: This bill is one of only two sponsored by freshman representative Ben Baker, R-Neosho, the other one being a bill to expand the rights of those who home school their children. During his election campaign, Baker made a point of refusing to attend two forums on educational issues.)

This bill is now over in the Senate and had a hearing in the Education Committee on April 16. The story was reported on a wide array of newspapers from The Portland Press Herald, to the Columbia Missourian, to Newsweek

There is no notice posted yet as to when the full Senate will take up the bill, but this may just be one of the signature pieces of the Republican led House and Senate this year. 










Never mind that schools are already permitted to reference religious texts as they apply to the subject matter students are studying. This bill specifies and only permits Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. 

Any amendment offered to broaden the scope were voted down.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nobody works harder than the godbotherers!


Hurrr hurrr Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Anonymous said...

@5:12 Well said!