Texas Board Advances Bible Reading List and Curriculum Overhaul
The proposals would require Bible passages for students as young as 6 and shift history lessons toward Texas and U.S. material, critics say.
- On Thursday, the majority-Republican Texas State Board of Education granted preliminary approval to a social studies curriculum overhaul and a mandatory reading list featuring Christian stories, following an initial authorization two days prior.
- Supporters argued that requiring students to read Bible stories acknowledges that the nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values, with Brandon Hall, the State Board of Education member for District 11, seeking to roll back 80 years of historical revisionism.
- Blake Ziegler, a Texas field organizer for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, criticized the inclusion of Lamentations 3, arguing it invites antisemitic implications when paired with Elie Wiesel's Holocaust literature, while Rabbi Josh Fixler called the term "Judeo-Christian" a "fig leaf at inclusion."
- The mandate affects over five and a half million students in Texas, requiring Bible instruction for children as young as 6 years old, though educators stressed that many books do not align with state requirements despite consuming roughly 36 weeks of instructional time.
- Final approval is scheduled for Friday, June 26, 2026; if approved, both the social studies overhaul and the reading list will take effect during the 2030-31 school year.
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By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN. Texas is poised to require more than five million public school students to study Bible stories, as the state positions itself as a leader in a nationwide conservative campaign to incorporate Christian teachings into American classrooms. The Republican-majority Texas State Board of Education is expected to vote Friday to approve a measure that would establish children's Bible stories and Bible verses as required reading …
More Bible Stories for Public Schools Given Initial Approval by Texas Education Board
By Jaden Edison, The Texas Tribune Texas students may soon attend social studies and reading classes that minimize racial, geographic and cultural diversity while emphasizing the Bible. The majority-Republican State Board of Education granted preliminary approval Tuesday afternoon to a reading list for all public schools that includes teaching Christian stories. The board members then began debating a rewrite of Texas’ social studies lessons, wi…
Texas is poised to require millions of students to study Bible stories
Texas is on the verge of mandating more than 5 million of its public school students to study Bible stories, as the state emerges as a leader in a national conservative effort to infuse Christian teachings into American classrooms.
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