The Nampa Classical Academy, a charter school in Idaho, planned to open the school year next month with an elective course using the Bible as a textbook. But a commission charged with overseeing the state's charter schools has written a directive disallowing this practice out of constitutional concerns.

The Idaho Public Charter School Commission ...released a memo stating that the Idaho Constitution "expressly" limits use of religious texts. Officials with the new Nampa charter school had planned to use the Bible and other religious texts as a primary source for instruction but not to teach religion.

School officials say they will "comply with the decision."