Texas State Board of Education votes to require millions of students to study Bible stories
CNN
By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN
(CNN) — The Texas State Board of Education has approved a proposal that will establish lists of required reading — including Bible verses alongside classic titles — for its K-12 English and literature curriculum.
The plan will impact more than 5 million public school students, as Texas emerges as a leader in a national conservative effort to infuse Christian teachings into American classrooms.
Multiple titles will be mandated for each grade, and each one must be read “in its entirety.” The effort goes far beyond a 2023 law that requires at least one state board-approved literary work be taught in each grade level.
While it is not unusual for states to suggest book titles for schools, Texas may be the first to prescribe a literary canon for every public school student, two experts told The Associated Press.
Many Texas students are already familiar with at least some Christian teachings: The state last year became the largest state to require classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, a law recently upheld in federal court.
The new list of required titles will include a picture-book adaptation of the David and Goliath story for elementary students and Bible passages about Adam and Eve for older students, among other references, according to a proposed list online. It will also heavily emphasize classic literature and historic American texts such as Abraham Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address.”
At the same meeting Friday, the school board also approved a rewrite of the state’s social studies curriculum, focusing more on Texas and US history and deemphasizing some teachings about global history and cultures. The change will eliminate a sixth grade “World Cultures” course and significantly expand lessons on communism.
The proposals have sharply divided teachers, parents and community members — hundreds of whom appeared before the school board this week to voice their concern and enthusiasm.
Supporters argue the Bible should be studied as an essential literary text that can help students understand Western history and the founding of the US. Board member Brandon Hall during a news conference Thursday called the proposals a “generational opportunity” to overhaul the state curriculum.
“We’re going to stop watering down American history. We’re going to teach the truth. Our nation was founded as a Christian nation, and Texas is a Christian state,” said Hall, a Republican who is a pastor in Springtown. He said the Bible has had a “remarkable impact on our culture, our societies and our laws.”
However, those who oppose the changes say the mandatory reading list favors Christianity over other religions and violates the separation between church and state.
Board member Evelyn Brooks, who was the only Republican to vote against the new required texts, said during debate Friday she believes the move is “unconstitutional.”
“Teachers need to have their autonomy. They’ve been selecting books for decades, for years,” Brooks said.
The changes will begin going into effect in the 2030-2031 school year.
“I would suspect that there’s going to be growing pains, just like any change in education,” said board member LJ Francis, who voted in favor of the provision.
Even so, he told CNN, “I think we’ll see the reading scores go up, and I think we’ll see children just learning and loving to read again.”
From Sunday school to public school
In recent years, Texas leaders have broadly eliminated studies of racial and cultural diversity while expanding the schools’ abilities to introduce Christianity to students.
In 2023, the state became the first to allow chaplains to counsel students, and the following year approved a measure that offered more funding to schools that teach an optional Bible-infused elementary school curriculum. The state’s education code already requires K-12 schools to teach “religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.”
As students learn US history, supporters of the new curriculum argue Christian texts should be inseparable from lessons on the nation’s founding.
“We don’t have to incorporate every religious belief in our history or in our literary works, because our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values,” said Susan Perez, founder of a Christian parent advocacy group, Citizens for Education Reform, in a school board meeting Monday.
Perez pointed out Christian references in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, which was signed in “the Year of Our Lord” 1787.
Under the new reading list, third-grade students will read the story, “ROAR! – Daniel and the Lion’s Den,” alongside titles like “Stuart Little” and “Charlotte’s Web,” according to the proposed lists online.
As students become more advanced in reading level, they will be introduced to passages directly from the Bible. Sixth-grade students will learn “The Shepherd’s Psalm” from the Book of Psalms alongside religious writings from George Washington and poems by Langston Hughes and Robert Frost.
Several community members expressed concerns during Monday’s board meeting that the plan would infringe on their autonomy as parents to oversee their children’s religious education.
Kimmie Fink, the mother of an active-duty military family stationed in Texas, told the board, “I would like to believe that my children’s constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom rights will remain intact wherever we are stationed.”
“Is this not the case in Texas, a state that champions parents’ rights? In Texas, parents have the fundamental legal right to direct the moral and religious upbringing of their children without state interference. The proposed literary works trample on this right,” Fink added.
Some proponents of the curriculum changes dispute arguments that children will be explicitly taught religion, saying the Biblical passages and stories will be taught in the context of world history.
Board member Francis said he does not view the inclusion of Bible passages in lessons as “proselytizing.”
“What we intend to do is just to introduce new or amazing kids in Texas to the wealth and breadth of a canon of Western literature,” Francis told CNN on Friday after the vote.
Earlier this week, former public school administrator Nancy Barker argued before the board the Bible readings “will provide students with the background knowledge you will need to understand the books, the speeches, poems and important documents that have shaped our civilization.”
‘Not all of us believe the same’
Board member Tiffany Clark, a Christian and Democrat who represents parts of Dallas-Fort Worth, had vocally opposed the curriculum. Clark said Thursday she and some of her Christian constituents believe “Bible lessons should be taught on Sundays.”
“Not all of us believe the same,” Clark told CNN, noting that Christian denominations reference different translations of the Bible and at times differ in their interpretations.
The new curriculum mandates specific Bible translations, including the King James Bible, which is widely used by Protestant and Evangelical churches but is avoided by the Roman Catholic Church.
Clark also said she fears the emphasis on Christian texts would alienate children who come from other religious backgrounds and prevent their parents from solely shaping their religious education. About a third of adults in Texas identify as non-Christian, according to Pew Research Center surveys from 2023-2024.
Though parents will have the option to opt their children out of some of the required teachings, Clark said, missing lessons could impact students’ test scores. Because the texts will be part of the curriculum, they could be included on standardized testing, potentially impacting the school district’s test record if students do not perform well.
One mother who spoke before the school board Monday in support of the proposal said she believes Texas has always stood for “giving our kids the knowledge they need to succeed.”
“Keeping biblical references in our social studies standards isn’t about pushing my religion, it’s about giving our students a complete education here and making sure they understand the history,” the mother said.
However, teachers may be put in a position to teach religious texts they are not familiar or comfortable with, said Rabbi Joshua Fixler with Congregation Emanu El in Houston.
“This list is full of Christian texts that are inappropriate for public school classrooms. 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. This list will force teachers to cross that line,” Fixler said.
The mandated literature curriculum could be a first of its kind, according to Antero Garcia, president of the National Council of Teachers of English and a Stanford University education professor.
Garcia told the AP he doesn’t know of any other state with a similar list. Educators at the district and school levels are generally able to choose what texts their students will read, he said.
Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, told the AP she believes such a mandated reading list would be unique to Texas.
“I think there’s lots of state lists that exist that are like advised readings, suggested readings,” she told the AP.
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