<\/p>\n
A Bible and Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy sit on the desk of State Board of Education member LJ Francis at the Barbara Jordan Building in Austin on June 22, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Bible passages<\/a> will be taught in Texas public schools, the State Board of Education decided on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Republican-majority board voted 9-5 in favor of a required reading list that includes Bible stories<\/a> but no representation of other religions, wrapping up a monthslong battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roughly 5.5 million children are enrolled in Texas public schools, and the new standards would affect students for years to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Education board members continued tweaking the reading list right up to Friday\u2019s vote after months of input from experts and the public and debate among themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: SBOE backs social studies standards tying Islam more closely to violence<\/a><\/p>\n On Friday, board members decided to stagger implementation of the reading list: elementary school students will see the new standards in the 2030-31 school year, sixth graders in the 2031-32 school year, seventh and eighth graders in the 2032-33 school year, and high school students in the 2033-34 school year.<\/p>\n State Board of Education member Julie Pickren prays during the invocation before a meeting on social studies standards at the Barbara Jordan Building in Austin on Friday, June 26, 2026. The board is considering revisions that would place greater emphasis on Christian history and biblical content in public school classrooms.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n This week\u2019s proceedings continued an existential debate for Texas, where conservative have consistently pushed for more Christianity in schools<\/a> and emphasized its role in American values. Hundreds traveled to Austin from across the state to testify both for and against the changes in front of the board, with public testimony and debate stretching late into the night. While defenders of the new list pointed to Christianity\u2019s centrality in American history, critics say the reading list blurs the line between church and state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Teaching about religion vs. promoting it<\/p>\n The new required reading list, mandated by the Texas Legislature in 2023,\u00a0 has over a dozen Bible passages or stories, with at least one biblical text in every grade except kindergarten. In first grade, students will read Noah\u2019s Ark by Peter Spier, and in later grades, excerpts from the books of Luke, Matthew and Genesis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related:Texas is considering a bigger role for Christianity in schools this month. Here\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0how<\/a><\/p>\n The list does not include the central texts of any other religions, prompting critics to say the required reading is promoting Christianity, violating the First Amendment. Educators and parents warned that non-Christian students could feel excluded.<\/p>\n Joshua Fixler, a rabbi from Houston, told the board on Monday it must not blur the line between teaching about religion and promoting it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Supporters argued that the list accurately reflects American \u201cJudeo-Christian\u201d values, and that the biblical texts are historically significant. North Texas board member Brandon Hall, R-Aledo, said the Bible is emphasized in a manner proportional to Christian contributions to American society.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are other faiths that are represented,\u201d Hall said Monday, \u201cbut they’ve had a minimal impact, especially in our founding and our culture and laws leading up to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n State Board of Education member LJ Francis votes on an amendment to a proposed required reading list during a meeting on social studies standards at the Barbara Jordan Building in Austin on Friday, June 26, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n During over eight hours of public testimony, several people pointed out that few, if any, Hispanic or female authors are on the list. State Rep. Salman Bhojani, D-Euless, said the list\u2019s lack of diversity in authors makes it less representative of Texas\u2019 population.\u00a0<\/p>\n Board member LJ Francis, R-Corpus Christi, dismissed the issue of author diversity, saying children don\u2019t care about the color of an author\u2019s skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On Friday, Francis successfully moved to add a passage from the Book of Jonah for first graders at the expense of two other texts.<\/p>\n Rebecca Bell-Metereau, D-San Marcos, said the story is \u201chorrific\u201d and would instill a fear of nature in children that young.<\/p>\n Too much material, not enough time<\/p>\n Advocates against the reading list said they take up too much class time, which could cause teachers to neglect other fundamental concepts and skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n State law mandates only one required reading per grade, with local systems supplementing additional material, but the final reading list includes as many as two dozen texts in a single grade level, including novels, poems and short stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Several educators warned on Monday that the sheer volume of texts would cause teachers to rush through each piece instead of teaching them well.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery entry you remove from these lists is instructional time given back to a teacher who knows their students best,\u201d said Thomas Garcia, an English professor at South Texas College, at Monday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bible and Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy sit on the desk of State Board of Education member LJ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[732,223,95009,95010,95012,27,29,28,88032,89512,92239,89204,92242,90463],"class_list":["post-352062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-article","tag-news","tag-news-faith","tag-news-politics","tag-news-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-ed-lab-teach-learn","tag-tp-education-lab","tag-tp-texas-education-agency","tag-tp-texas-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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