AUSTIN – Republicans on the State Board of Education Thursday soundly rejected a Democratic-backed proposal to require that Texas students be taught the reasons behind the prohibition of a state religion in the Bill of Rights. In a surprise decision in the curriculum standards for U.S. government classes, the board defeated an amendment by member Mavis Knight, D-Dallas, that called on students to "examine" the reasons the Founding Fathers "protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others." www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/031210dnmetsboe.19ab856dd.html