https://archive.ph/nporNhttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/06/texas-expected-to-approve-mandatory-bible-readings-for-public-school-students/Texas expected to approve mandatory Bible readings for public school students. The proposal would affect roughly one in ten K-12 students in the United States.The proposal would affect roughly one in ten K-12 students in the United States.The Texas State Board of Education is set to vote on a proposal that would establish a mandatory reading list for K-12 public school students. The list, an oddity in its own right, includes extensive selections from the Bible while snubbing all other religions.
The Republican-majority board is expected to approve the book list today, despite heavy pushback from Democrats and Christians, like board member Tiffany Clark. In opposing the curriculum, Clark said that “Bible lessons should be taught on Sundays.” She also highlighted the problem with selecting passages from one translation of the bible over another, noting that “not all of us [Christians] believe the same.”
The board’s decision will affect more than 5 million public school students across Texas, a population that represents roughly one in ten of all public school attendees in the United States.
The vote comes on the heels of other controversial moves from Texas schools that have blurred the line between church and state while promoting Christianity above all other religions, if not exclusively. In 2023, Texas became the first state to allow public schools to hire chaplains to counsel students. Last year, it was the largest state to pass a law – which a federal appeals court upheld in April – requiring the ten commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms.
he Texas GOP’s attempt to rework the public school environment doesn’t end there. Last year, the state passed a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and the Texas GOP’s 2026 platform includes banning trans teachers from working in schools.
The Board of Education’s introduction of a mandatory reading list for grades K-12 is based on a 2023 law that required each grade to have at least one title on their list across the state. Working with outside advisors, the board compiled more than 200 titles to include.
A legislative communications associate for the Texas Freedom Network, Elva Mendoza, highlighted how ridiculous the micromanaging of teachers through these lists would be by pulling out a single title: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a children’s board book. The inclusion led Mendoza to ask, “Can’t our kindergarten teachers be trusted to choose board books?”
The lists also include the tales of David and Goliath and Daniel and the Lion’s Den in picture book form for younger readers, with them later reading Jesus’ sermon on the mount, Bible passages about Adam and Eve, and more. All of this would be included alongside their literature requirements, to the exclusion of any other religious text.
Critics have highlighted that the inclusion of these religious texts, favoring Christianity over other religions, violates parents’ rights and ability to guide their own children’s religious education.
Supporters on the board and in the community have claimed that these texts help students understand Western culture and the founding of the United States. Susan Perez, founder of Citizens for Education Reform, a Christian advocacy group, claimed that Christian references in the Declaration of Independence were a clear sign that the Bible should be taught.
However, in earlier drafts of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson highlights King George’s role as a Christian monarch in negative terms: “His piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain.” Moreover, in the Bill of Rights, the founders make it clear in the First Amendment that freedom of religion is a key tenet of the nation.
Citing the nature of the list itself, Antero Garcia, a Stanford University professor and the president of the National Council of Teachers of English, told the Associated Press that he believes no other state has a list anything like this, religious texts included or not.
Frank Strong, a teacher and co-founder of the advocacy group Texas Freedom to Read, added, “I do think that it’s disturbing that there are no texts from other religious traditions that are included.”
If approved, the new lists would take effect in 2030.