ATLANTA - Senate Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow teaching the Bible in public high schools as long as the instruction is framed around academic study and not faith-based teachings.

"Faith is best left for the parents," said Sen. Tim Golden, D-Valdosta, the chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus and a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 437. "This will be an academic course."

Mr. Golden said the proposed class would be offered in the ninth through 12th grades as an elective.

If approved, the bill would give the State Board of Education and local school boards the option of including the Bible literacy class, intended to teach students about the use of Biblical references in historical events, books and art.

Pushing the bill will require a balancing act so that the legislation is able to meet constitutional standards, Sen. Kasim Reed, D-Atlanta, said.

"This is going to be hard," he said about the legislative effort.

Though the sponsoring senators are pushing a newly published textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, as one that could walk an appropriate line, it would be up to the state education officials to pick the reading materials if the idea moves forward.

Mr. Reed said one of the reasons to introduce the class through legislation rather than leaving it to the school boards is to protect the local systems from facing legal challenges on their own. If the curriculum is approved legislatively, the state Attorney General's Office would be responsible for defending the course if needed.

Maggie Garrett, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said it is possible to teach Biblical references in schools in a constitutional way but that it can be difficult to do.

"It would have to be done in an objective way," she said. "I think one way to maybe improve this bill is to add other religious texts."

Meanwhile, another senator was busy Wednesday backing away from the taboo phrase "condemnation" included in his original bill for helping residential development in rural areas.

Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon, presented a re-edited version of his Senate Bill 414 to the chamber's economic development committee.

Mr. Staton's bill seeks to create quasi-governmental boards that would be able to issue bonds for infrastructure improvements, such as building schools and installing water and sewer lines, instead of having local governments foot the costs for a new neighborhood.

Under the measure, the homeowners who move in would pay off the bonds' debt.

Mr. Staton, who took office last year, said he did not mean for the bill to give the boards the power of condemning property for their projects.

He said the legislation was based on language in other states, such as Florida and Texas, that have created similar laws and in some places allow eminent domain powers if the governing board works through the local government.

From the Thursday, January 19, 2006 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle