SAN ANTONIO -- Students in Texas public schools will be required to recite a pledge of allegiance to the Texas flag beginning in the 2003-2004 school year.

A new Texas law mandates that students recite the Texas pledge after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.

At a convocation Wednesday for teachers in the Northside Independent School District, teachers were given a card that has the words to the Texas pledge.

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"I think that we should respect our country and our state and we need to support our state by having the children say the pledge every morning," said Grady Evans, a teacher.

"It's one nation, so why should we pledge allegiance to the state? I don't know? I think it's dumb," said Sarah Ford, a Warren High School student.

The new law will also cut into school district budgets. Every classroom will be required to display the Texas flag.

For Northside ISD, which has 5,000 classrooms, the cost of purchasing flags at $10 a piece comes to $50,000.

District officials said teachers will be asked to display temporary Texas flags that were printed in the Sunday edition of the San Antonio Express-News until the district provides them with a real flag.