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Alabama is poised to potentially join the likes of Arkansas in bringing religious freedoms back to the classroom in April thanks to two pending pieces of legislation.
The Alabama House of Representatives moved in April to pass a bill requiring all K-12 classrooms display the Ten Commandments, a major win for religious freedoms in the state, according to the Alabama Reflector. The legislation is written specifically to ensure that local school boards are not made to pay for the poster-sized display and accompanying explainer.
“This bill would require the State Department of Education to identify and publicize free resources that local boards of education may use to comply with the display requirement,” the bill reads, noting the importance of the Judeo-Christian religious and moral traditions that helped shape all of Western civilization, and found the United States.
Chaplains Return To Class?
After failing in 2024, a bill allowing for schools to have volunteer chaplains passed 91-4, moving forward through the state legislature, the Alabama Daily News reported. “What we’re trying to do is offer to our teachers — teachers only, not students — the opportunity to have a resource that they can go to to get counseling to get help if they’re struggling with something and they don’t have a person they can talk to that will be confidential and non-partial,” Republican Rep. Mark Gidley said of the bill.
If approved, Alabama would join the likes of Florida, Texas, and Louisiana in allowing chaplains to assume various roles within the state. Gidley noted that chaplains are already allowed to work with firemen, policemen and military members. “So many of our teachers are under great stress in their job and other things too and we want to do all we can to give them every resource possible to help preserve them and conserve them,” he added.
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