In an N&O op-ed, Jennifer Lovejoy and Susanne Werner of the Secular Coalition for North Carolina argue,
Senate Bill 138, offering high school elective courses in Bible studies, is problematic for many reasons: It likely will not be implemented as intended and the costs of adequate implementation have not been addressed at all. The end result will be a failed program that will put our school districts in legal jeopardy and North Carolina taxpayers in financial jeopardy.
Their statement that “the costs of adequate implementation have not been addressed at all” reminded me of the ongoing implementation of the Common Core State Standards. In 2010, the NC State Board of Education signed on to the quasi-national standards without any discussion of implementation costs, which are estimated to reach tens of millions of dollars per year. So far, legislators do not appear to care. But they will. It is a matter of time before state education officials begin asking for money for funds for new instructional materials, professional development, and technology.
By the way, I share one of Lovejoy and Werner’s concerns. I suspect that very few teachers have adequate training to teach a Bible class. Additionally, I am not a big fan of offering numerous electives to public school students.
