{"id":352214,"date":"2026-06-27T01:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352214\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T01:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:46:18","slug":"bible-passages-to-be-required-reading-in-texas-public-schools-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352214\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible passages to be required reading in Texas public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Texas Board of Education on \u2060Friday approved mandated reading \u2060lists for public school \u2060children that include passages from the Bible \u2013 the latest effort by leaders there to infuse the education system with conservative and religious ideals.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Republican-dominated board, in a 9-5 vote with \u200cone member absent and not voting, approved the reading lists for over 5 million public school students beginning in 2030.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Texas had already mandated that the Bible\u2019s Ten Commandments be displayed in all public schools, a decision that was upheld by a federal appeal \u2060court earlier this year, following on the heels of other Republican-led states \u200cseeking to infuse public education with Christian teachings.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Critics say these decisions are at odds with the Constitution\u2019s \u201cestablishment clause\u201d, \u200clong understood by courts as separating church and state.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Audience members and State Board of Education member Julie Pickren (front right) pray before a meeting on social studies standards in Austin, Texas, on Friday. Photo: Austin American-Statesman via AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0df9072a-1563-45bb-bebf-b13f58b083fc_83112958.jpg\" title=\"Audience members and State Board of Education member Julie Pickren (front right) pray before a meeting on social studies standards in Austin, Texas, on Friday. Photo: Austin American-Statesman via AP\"\/>Audience members and State Board of Education member Julie Pickren (front right) pray before a meeting on social studies standards in Austin, Texas, on Friday. Photo: Austin American-Statesman via AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Supporters say \u2060the measures restore \u2060basic Judeo-Christian teachings to school systems, which many have said are historically significant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Board of Education on \u2060Friday approved mandated reading \u2060lists for public school \u2060children that include passages&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30308,3068,4118,8235,124737,125465,8234,11360,27,93476,29,28],"class_list":["post-352214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-americans-united-for-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-bible","tag-christian","tag-constitution","tag-judeo-christian","tag-rachel-laser","tag-republican","tag-ten-commandments","tag-texas","tag-texas-board-of-education","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352214","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=352214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}