A public charter school in Texas is being investigated for pushing religion onto students as if it were a private Christian school.

According to a letter from Freedom From Religion Foundation Attorney Sam Grover to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, Advantage Academy is out of control when it comes to preaching faith.

It all stems from the school’s founder, Allen Beck, a Christian evangelist who says in the video above that he began Advantage Academy to “bring Christianity and the bible ‘back’ into public schools.”

During his speech, Beck continually flaunts how he has deceived the state and the Texas Education Agency for years by claiming that Advantage Academy is not promoting Christianity… Beck also admits that Advantage Academy is teaching the bible to students, encouraging students to pray, and spreading misinformation about the foundations of American history based on the writings of widely discredited pseudo-historian David Barton. Additionally, Beck is adamant that Advantage Academy is “God’s school” and that he acquired the school by “attacking the educational system.” The main point of his sermon, Beck sums up, is that everyone, no matter their position within the public school system, needs to be incorporating religion into their work and evangelizing.

The issue isn’t that a Christian like Beck founded this school, only that he insists on running it as another church while getting all the tax benefits of being an ostensibly public school. Even in Texas, this should be unacceptable.

FFRF is asking for the school to get back into compliance with the law or have its charter revoked. Texas officials need to act on this immediately before more money and minds are wasted.



