{"id":352478,"date":"2026-06-27T08:46:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T08:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352478\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T08:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T08:46:25","slug":"backlash-as-texas-approves-unconstitutional-mandatory-bible-lessons-in-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352478\/","title":{"rendered":"Backlash as Texas Approves ‘Unconstitutional’ Mandatory Bible Lessons in Public Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

As education officials in Texas<\/a> ban hundreds of books<\/a> that run afoul of their interpretation of Christian morality, the State Board of Education on Friday approved a required reading list that forces the state’s more than 5 million public school students to read from the Bible.<\/p>\n

The Republican-controlled SBOE voted 9-5 with one abstention to approve the list, which includes passages from the Book of Exodus as well as the Shepherd’s Psalm and the myths of Adam and Eve and David and Goliath.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re going to stop watering down American history. We\u2019re going to teach the truth. Our nation was founded as a Christian nation, and Texas is a Christian state,\u201d Republican board member Brandon Hall\u2014who is also a youth pastor at Cavalry Baptist Church in Springtown\u2014said<\/a> during a Thursday press conference in Austin.<\/p>\n

That “truth” omits or marginalizes climate change<\/a>, US imperialism<\/a>, women’s history<\/a>, the genocide<\/a> of Indigenous<\/a> peoples, slavery<\/a>, and racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Evelyn Brooks, the only Republican SBOE member to vote against the required reading list, told<\/a> CNN on Friday that she believes the board’s move is “unconstitutional.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers need to have their autonomy,” she said. “They\u2019ve been selecting books for decades.”<\/p>\n

In 2023, Texas’ Republican-controlled Legislature passed HB 1605<\/a>, which mandated the creation of a K-12 required reading list and directed the Texas Education Agency to develop state-owned textbooks. Those texts, called Bluebonnet Learning, contain lessons on Christianity starting in kindergarten. The SBOE approved<\/a> Bluebonnet Learning as an optional curriculum in late 2024 and is currently working to correct thousands of errors in the curriculum at a cost of over $8 million<\/a> to Texas taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The SBOE action comes amid a legal battle over SB 10<\/a>, a law signed last year by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> that requires public elementary and secondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. US District Judge Fred Biery, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton<\/a>, subsequently issued<\/a> a preliminary injunction blocking the law. Texas families also sued<\/a> to block the legislation. However, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2014who is running for US Senate\u2014demanded<\/a> that schools comply with the law.<\/p>\n

Public schools<\/a> “exist to educate students with diverse faith backgrounds, as well as those who adhere to no faith doctrine,” the Freedom From Religion<\/a> Foundation (FFRF) said<\/a> Friday. “Public schools are not Sunday schools, and elected officials have no business using state power to elevate one religion above all others. A required reading list that overwhelmingly favors Christian texts while excluding the writings and literary traditions of other faiths, not to mention the perspectives of millions of nonreligious Americans, sends an unmistakable message about who belongs and who does not.”<\/p>\n

FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor asserted that \u201ca mandatory public school reading list should never function as a Bible lesson.”<\/p>\n

“Texas is telling millions of children<\/a> that one religion deserves the government\u2019s seal of approval, while everyone else is an afterthought,” she added. “That\u2019s government-sponsored religious favoritism\u2014and the First Amendment<\/a> strictly forbids it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Joshua Fixler at Congregation Emanu El in Houston told CNN Friday that “this list is full of Christian texts that are inappropriate for public school classrooms.”<\/p>\n

“As a rabbi and a parent of Jewish kids, I think it is vital that this board make a distinction between teaching about religion and teaching religion,” he added. “This list will force teachers to cross that line.”<\/p>\n

Fort Worth high school teacher Chanea Bond told<\/a> The Associated Press on Friday that the SBOE’s required reading list is “very old and very white.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very narrow and does not represent what classrooms in Texas look like,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing through most of high school without ever having much value put into voices that sound like yours kind of sends a message that your voices aren\u2019t valuable.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As education officials in Texas ban hundreds of books that run afoul of their interpretation of Christian morality,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[163,30310,392,1967,30311,1968,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-352478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-education","tag-freedom-from-religion-foundation","tag-greg-abbott","tag-ken-paxton","tag-public-schools","tag-religion","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352478","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=352478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}