Texas Education Board Backs Curriculum With Lessons Drawn From Bible

School districts serving more than two million elementary-school children would be able to adopt a curriculum that draws on the Bible.

Texas education officials backed on Tuesday a new elementary school curriculum that infuses material drawn from the Bible into reading and language arts lessons, a contentious move that would test the limits of religion’s presence in public education.

The curriculum, which will be optional, has already drawn protests in Texas, which has emerged as a leader in the ascendant but highly contested push to expand the role of religion in public schools. The new curriculum could become a model for other states.

The vote was preliminary. The board typically takes an initial vote on issues in smaller committees. But all of its 15 members were present on Tuesday and the final vote is expected to take place later in the week, with the same outcome.

With the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump promising to champion the conservative Christian movement in his second presidential term, the lessons may also offer a playbook for the White House.

Advocates of religious freedom say the new curriculum is the latest major effort by conservatives to explicitly tie the nation’s history and politics to Christian values. Texas was the first state to allow public schools to hire religious chaplains as school counselors, and the Republican-controlled legislature is expected to try once again to require public-school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Schools have emerged as a focus for clashes over the role of Christian values in public life. In Oklahoma, the state superintendent has begun buying Bibles for classroom use, and sent a video to schools last week inviting students to pray for Mr. Trump. Louisiana is fighting in court over a new state mandate that all classrooms there post the Ten Commandments.