The Texas State Board of Education, with a conservative majority, plans to add at least 15 Bible passages to the required reading list for English classes in public schools. This move targets middle school students and beyond, introducing stories like Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, and Lamentations 3, along with New Testament excerpts such as The Definition of Love.
Expanded Literary List
The updated list retains classic works including The Diary of Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Homer’s “The Odyssey,” William Shakespeare plays, and Edgar Allan Poe poems. The board also seeks greater focus on U.S. and Texas history through chronological studies across most grades.
Criticism from Advocacy Groups
Advocacy organizations and educators express concerns that these changes promote a narrow historical perspective and risk indoctrinating students. Chris Line, legal counsel for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, stated last year regarding Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s push for Christian elements in education: “Texas public schools exist to educate, not indoctrinate.”
Line added: “When you use your official position to instruct children to pray ‘as taught by Jesus Christ,’ you send a message to Texas students and families that the state favors Christianity over all other religions and over nonreligion. This is precisely what the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids.”
Rocio Fierro-Perez, political director for the Texas Freedom Network, warned: “If adopted as written, these recommendations would essentially leave our children able to recite disconnected Texas facts, but it would really undermine their ability to understand a global economy and the role that Texas plays outside of the state.”
Support from Board Members
Will Hickman, a Republican board member from Houston and board secretary, defends the Bible stories as essential for cultural literacy. “In my view, these stories are on the education side and are establishing cultural literacy,” Hickman said. “And there’s religious concepts like the Good Samaritan and the Golden Rule and Moses that all students should be exposed to.”
Hickman has suggested an alternative list that removes some existing literary works and includes additional Bible passages like Noah’s Ark and Adam and Eve.
Recent Educational Developments
Last year, the board approved Bluebonnet Learning, a curriculum critics argue embeds Christian themes. Districts adopting it receive $60 per student in state funding—$20 more than other approved materials—though implementation remains optional.
The board, consisting of 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats, will review these proposals at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday.
Legal Precedents and Ongoing Efforts
A federal judge recently blocked a Texas law mandating Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, ruling it likely violates First Amendment religious freedom protections. Similar initiatives in other Republican-led states have faced court challenges.
Following the ruling, Paxton urged schools to pursue reinstating classroom prayer. In a letter, he wrote: “In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up.”
