Bibles in the classroom? One Magic Valley legislator says it’s unconstitutional

Conzatti, president of the Christian nonprofit Idaho Family Policy Center, told the Times-News on Tuesday that he believes it’s time to bring the Bible back.

Conzatti said he has drafted a bill for the 2025 Idaho legislative session that would create a legal requirement for public schools to ensure that 20 Bible verses are read in classrooms every morning.

The Idaho Family Policy Center is a Boise-based group that advances the lordship of Christ in the public square and trains statesmen to advocate for Judeo-Christian values, according to tax forms. It engages in some lobbying activity, but not enough to risk losing its tax exempt status.

“It is our belief that our children and our communities are starved for the biblical principles that once made our society the greatest in the world,” Conzatti said. “That’s why we’re arguing that it’s critical for the Idaho state Legislature to take this historic opportunity and bring the Bible back into the classroom.”

He said the Bible was read in Idaho classrooms for over 100 years, ending in 1963. He said the draft legislation is similar to an Idaho law passed in 1925, but with significant updates to ensure it passes modern constitutional muster.

The new bill includes conscience protections for teachers and students who do not want to participate, he said.

Conzatti is not concerned about how students who practice other religions would feel if the Bible was read every day. He said the draft legislation includes no assignments, discussion or instruction of the Bible.

“We are not expecting anyone to affirm the Christian religion,” he said, adding he does not believe the legislation would open the door for reading other holy texts, like the Quran, as there is not a history and tradition of reading the Quran in this country.

To back up his constitutional argument, Conzatti said he has seen a shift recently in federal judiciary establishment clause jurisprudence. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free practice thereof.

Conzatti said he truly believes school-sponsored Bible reading is constitutional and he said he is not trying to create a test case for the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It took place in Idaho for around 100 years until a federal court and an activist judge invalidated the practice,” Conzatti said.

Local thoughts

The Times-News spoke with five state legislators and one Twin Falls pastor to hear their thoughts on requiring the Bible in the classroom and using public funds for private schools.

Sen. Ron Taylor, D-Hailey, will be the only Democratic legislator from the Magic Valley. He said the state is constitutionally bound to provide free and fair education to everyone, but not bound to provide religious doctrine.

“Our Constitution has a very clear delineation of church and state,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he has voted against public funds for private schools before and he will do it again. He expressed clear opposition to the Idaho Family Policy Center’s proposal, calling it a distraction.

“We should not be reading the Bible in our public schools,” Taylor said.

Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls, said she not only supports reading 20 Bible verses in the classroom every morning, but she also plans to introduce a bill that would require schools to post the Ten Commandments.

“Our nation is historically a Christian nation,” she said.

Zuiderveld said she believes the Bible reading proposal is constitutional and referred to the 1892 U.S. Supreme Court case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States. She said Bible reading is part of the country’s history.

Representative-elect Mike Pohanka, R-Jerome, said he went to private school and read the Bible every day. He said decisions on public school teachers reading the Bible should be left up to local school boards.

“If they do, that’s fine; if they don’t that’s up to them,” Pohanka said. “I think it just needs to be at the local level.”

Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, the longest serving legislator in the Magic Valley, said he expects several bills regarding school choice and public funding for religious schools in the coming session.

Clow did not comment on the Bible proposal.

“Until we’re in the Legislature, you don’t see anything,” he said. “Everything’s all hypothetical at this point.”

Rep. Douglas Pickett, R-Oakley, said he hasn’t heard about any proposals to require public schools to read the Bible and he doesn’t have a comment on his stance.

“I think we need to really see what they are proposing before we make any judgments on that,” he said.

Conzatti is both president of the Idaho Family Policy Center and director of the ID Family PAC — a group that does not appear to have a website — but he said there is no legal or official relationship between the two groups.

Both share the same street address, at 1116 S. Vista Ave. in Boise, but the center has an office in suite 227 and the PAC has a P.O. box at that address.

In another connection between the two groups, Chad Israel Waitman is both a current board member for the center and a former treasurer for the PAC.

The PAC is led by chair Christian Welp, who is also a registered lobbyist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise.

Of the 12 state legislators representing the Magic Valley, five received contributions from ID Family PAC during the 2024 campaign: Zuiderveld, Pickett, Sen. Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, Rep. Steve Miller, R-Fairfield, and Representative-elect Joshua Kohl, R-Twin Falls.

Of the five, ID Family PAC spent the most money to support Kohl. His campaign received a contribution of $1,000 from the PAC as well as $8,653 in independent expenditures. Magic Valley Liberty Alliance PAC also endorsed Kohl.

Kohl stated in an email to the Times-News that he has not read the draft Bible legislation and has not spoken to Conzatti about it.

Zuiderveld’s campaign spent $600 in October for an event at The River Christian Fellowship during the 2024 election season.

Scott Spencer, assistant pastor at River Christian Fellowship, told the Times-News on Friday that the U.S. was founded on Christian principles, like treating other people well and being nice.

He said he thinks it would be good for teachers to read the Bible in schools, as kids today have no compass and no sense of right and wrong.

“The biblical principles are true whether or not you’re actually reading the scripture or not, about treating other people well, about helping other people,” he said.

A former teacher himself, Spencer said he taught from a book that promoted Christian morals without specific biblical references, but that book has since been replaced with one that teaches nothing but a progressive, leftist, woke agenda.

“What we’ve had for the last four years with the whole woke agenda,” Spencer said. “That’s being pushed way harder than any of the Christian principles that made our country great.”

Spencer said, as a country, we are at the point where a woman can have a live baby and then kill that baby after it is born, echoing a false claim from President-elect Donald Trump.

“The mom can say, ‘I don’t want the kid,’ and they can kill it,” he said. “In some states that’s legal. That’s horrific to me.”

It is illegal in all 50 states to kill a child after live birth.

Spencer also expressed disdain for transgender people.

“Someone can say, ‘I’m a girl,’” he said. “No you’re not.”

The Idaho Family Policy Center circulated a 2024 candidate questionnaire that includes questions about protecting biological females in bathrooms, removing exceptions for abortion in the case of rape or incest, prohibiting drag shows, protecting traditional marriage between a man and woman and holding teachers accountable for teaching critical race theory.

None of the legislators the Times-News spoke with said they had filled out the questionnaire.

Conzatti said the U.S. Supreme Court has established that the U.S. is a Christian nation — in the 1892 decision of Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States — and that lawmakers need to reflect that sentiment.

“We are a Christian ministry and believe that government officials are God’s ministers and they are expected to uphold God’s standards of justice,” Conzatti said. “They are expected to govern according to biblical principles.”