Evangelical Right: South Carolina Law Allows Credit for Off-Campus Bible Study

But what if you want to study the Koran or the Torah?

[From The SC State via Huffpost] While other students learn how to conjugate French verbs or navigate a musical scale, nearly 6,500 S.C. students a year leave campus and learn about the Bible and its Ten Commandments.
Now South Carolina has became the second state to allow schools to give students academic credit for that instruction.

The South Carolina Released Time Credit Act, signed into law June 2 by Gov. Mark Sanford, permits schools to give students an elective credit for participating in the religion class.

“The (new law) just eliminates any questions of the legality or viability of Bible curriculums.” said Grayson Hartgrove, a member of the national organization Bible Education in School Time Network and program director for the Midlands Christian Learning Center.

In the Midlands, the elective course is available at the middle school level in three Lexington County school districts and in the Newberry County school district.
Supporters around the state hope the new law will revive high school enrollment in Bible education, encouraging churches and school officials to create more programs for those students.

“Part of the problem is that if you can’t get credit for it, then you can’t afford to take the time to take the class,” said Robbie Muncatchy of Columbia.

Her grandson, Andrew Harrison, attended the Bible education program at CrossRoads Middle School.

No high schools in the Midlands offer a Released Time program.

Both Spartanburg 7 and Greenville school districts have had high school Released Time programs.

Students can take part in the Released Time programs because of a 1952 court ruling, saying it is constitutional for students to leave campus to take part in religious education courses.

But because of scheduling conflicts and graduation requirements, religious organizations have had smaller-than-expected participation from high school students.

For example, less than 10 percent of the 1,130 students in Greenville’s Christian Learning Centers are in high school, officials said.

Coordinator Troy Bridges said Spartanburg’s Bible Education in School Time program had to stop serving Spartanburg High School after the state started its phase-in of increased graduation requirements in 1997.

Now with the Credit Act signed, Released Time groups are scrambling to get more high school programs approved by superintendents and school boards.

Spartanburg’s Bridges said he’d like to have a high school course available by January 2007. However, Hartgrove said it likely will be the 2007-08 school year before a class is available for high school students in the Midlands.

That’s because it’ll take more churches, money and resources to offer a high school elective. It takes the participation of at least two churches and $7,200 to operate CrossRoads’ Bible education course.

An independent program, Kids 4 Christ, is available to Sandhills Elementary School students in Lexington 4. That program costs about $2,000 to offer. In addition, teachers buy some of their own materials.

The availability of New Released Time courses “will depend on the interest in the local churches,” Hartgrove said.

Lexington 3 officials said they haven’t been approached by church organizations to offer Released Time programs. But, beginning in August, the Old Testament and the New Testament will be taught as a history elective to high school students. The Bible will be used as a historical text.

“The need was there,” said school board member Randy Fox, adding the fall class is full. “It’s a good thing to have more of.”

Spartanburg’s Bridges said Released Time programs will fill a gap in high school course offerings.

“Our moral values are so eroded by what’s happening in our country,” Bridges said. “We need something to offset it and this is one way of doing it.”