A faith-based conservative nonprofit is partnering with school districts across Texas to help implement a new law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.
Signed into law in June, Senate Bill 10 requires schools to post the Ten Commandments, measuring at least 16-by-20 inches in a legible typeface, in a “conspicuous place” in every classroom.
Austin-based Texas Values — which helped push through SB 10 earlier this year — launched RestoreAmericanSchools.com in July to give organizations and community leaders a way to get the Ten Commandments into the hands of schools across the state.
The website allows users to select their desired school(s), purchase posters with shipping included for only $1, and provides additional steps to donate their posters. In order to comply with SB 10, any poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments must be donated rather than purchased by the schools directly.
Donors are asked to choose a classroom or school in Arkansas or Texas and have the posters delivered to 30 classrooms for $30, all the way up to donating to 33 schools for $1,000.
“It was important to us that we are able to take private donations and give those to the school districts and not burden them with having to come up with funding,” said Jonathan Covey, policy director for Texas Values, in an interview with local NBC affiliate WTHR.
Texas Values says while the initiative will begin with more than 11,000 schools across both states, the goal is to get the Decalogue into over 100,000 schools.
Frisco ISD, located about 25 miles north of Dallas, has reportedly spent over $1,800 on posters of the Commandments to distribute to participating classrooms across its 77 campuses, according to WTHR.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other outside legal organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SB 10, arguing that students will be “coerced” into observing “religious doctrine.”
The suit was filed by a coalition of 16 families spanning Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, Hindu and nonreligious backgrounds with legal support from the ACLU of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Wisconsin-based atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation.
In a statement following the lawsuit, Covey said he believes the law is “constitutionally sound” and backed by legal precedent. “This lawsuit is yet another example of outside national groups trying to override the will of Texas citizens and their elected representatives,” he said. “The significance of the Ten Commandments is undeniable in our nation’s laws and history, and we are confident the state of Texas is prepared to meet all challenges.”
