By Kelsy Mittauer
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TEXAS (KTVT) — Move over, reading and writing, there’s a new kind of class coming to public schools in Texas. A state law passed last year requires districts to allow their students to receive religious instruction as part of the school day.
The classes, called released time for religious instruction (RTRI), take place during school hours, and students are required to make up any work they miss. They can only happen with a parent’s permission and private funding.
The law, Senate Bill 1049, passed with little fanfare and broad bipartisan support, was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott and took effect on Sept. 1. The I-Team has found that it was part of a “copy and paste” effort spearheaded by LifeWise Academy and its supporters; LifeWise is a Christian nonprofit group pushing for religious instruction for public school students nationwide.
LifeWise Academy operates the largest RTRI program in the country and is working to expand further, with dozens of chapters forming in North Texas alone. One such chapter in Cleburne draws about 10% of the student body at Cooke Elementary, according to Diana Balmer, who runs it.
“It’s fun to see their excitement,” she said. “And the teacher knows: Jesus in every lesson.”
Every day, Balmer walks students from Cooke to a church down the street for LifeWise, while their classmates take electives such as music, physical education, and computer lab.
Under SB 1049, the classes are optional for students but not for schools. That means districts have to allow programs to pull students out of class for up to 5 hours each week, as long as parents give permission and the program is privately funded.
State Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, authored the bill. During the 2025 legislative session, he said it would help parents who wanted religious education but could not afford private school. He told members of the Senate education committee that 15 school districts had denied parents’ requests to start such a program.
He also said the bill reinforced a 1952 Supreme Court case holding that public school districts may allow students to leave campus for religious instruction without violating the Constitution.
But there is one big difference between that case and SB 1049.
King’s legislation reads, “school district shall excuse a student…” while the original case, Zorach v. Clauson, stated that districts “may excuse a student.”
In legalese, “may” means there is a choice; “Shall” means there is not.
LifeWise and its supporters spoke about the importance of wording at a December 2024 meeting of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. During the presentation, Cody Balch, the nonprofit’s senior director of statewide initiatives, pointed out how changing from “may” to “shall” in Indiana led to massive growth in its programs.
“Just a few months ago, they were a ‘may’ state,” Balch said. “And in just a short time, they’ve quadrupled their LifeWise programs, and they’re already serving over 70 schools in Indiana.”
They also gave each lawmaker in attendance a copy of model legislation with the “shall” language. That wording was in SB 1049 when King filed it a few months later.
Now, if someone wants to start a religious studies program at a public school, the district has to allow it.
King and his office declined numerous interview requests for this story. In a phone call, he said SB 1049 was a “minor bill” that was “just not important enough” to warrant an interview.
However, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the State Senate, apparently believes in its importance. In July, he asked the Senate’s religious liberty committee to monitor the bill and ensure it is implemented without issues.
Experts in religion and education also believe the law is important, especially in the context of other recent state efforts, like putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms and adding Bible stories to textbooks.
“This all looks like part of a broader effort to privilege certain religious views over the views of everyone else,” said Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at SMU. “And I think that’s problematic, especially in a very diverse state like Texas.”
Chancey’s research focuses on the intersection of religion and public education. He says more research is needed to know just how RTRI programs will impact schools and students.
“What happens with that lost instruction time in the public school itself? What are children missing when they leave the school to go for outside instruction? How does that affect the dynamics in the classroom?” he said.
Rev. Charles Johnson, who leads a nonprofit called Pastors for Texas Children, says churches play an important role in supporting schools, students and teachers, but the law approaches it in the wrong way.
“What you’re doing is creating an environment where, people that don’t subscribe to that viewpoint that got that bill passed, they become discriminated against. That’s exactly what’s going to happen in these schools,” he said.
“I do think that children ought to learn the history of religion,” Johnson said. “But you present it in a way that is non-sectarian, and that does not use the authority of the school to advance a particular, specific religious point of view. That is for the home and the congregation.”
In a statement to CBS News Texas, LifeWise described itself as an organization that “comes alongside administrators and teachers to support their mission of serving students.”
“LifeWise supports legislation that gives parents the freedom to choose off-campus religious instruction for their children during the school hours. Like many nonprofit organizations, LifeWise engages in legally permissible advocacy and education related to issues that advance our mission and complies with all applicable federal and state laws governing nonprofit lobbying and advocacy activities. As legislation has been considered in states across the country, we have shared information about released time religious instruction, including our experience implementing these programs and the legal frameworks that support them. We encourage Texas families interested in learning more about LifeWise Academy and released time religious instruction to visit our website, lifewise.org“
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