News/Commentary

Texas Board of Ed approves new required reading list that contains Bible passages

June 27, 2026 | | Print Article

The Texas State Board of Education on Friday approved a new required reading list that contains Bible passages, thus making Texas the first state in America where students must read the Bible to pass their schooling.

Why Bible passages in school?

Julie Pickren, a Republican member of the education board, told The Texas Tribune that these passages provide “important insights into the moral and philosophical traditions that have shaped Western civilization.”

“A classical approach to education, one that emphasizes the careful study of primary historical documents, plays a vital role in developing strong critical thinking skills in students,” Pickren continued.

“When students engage directly with original writings, speeches, sermons, and foundational texts, they can evaluate ideas and develop a deeper understanding of the principles that have shaped the USA and Texas,” she added.

Brandon Hall, another Republican member of the education board, said during a press conference on Thursday that this new requirement will provide a “generational opportunity” to make things better.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We’re going to stop watering down American history,” he said, according to CNN. “We’re going to teach the truth. Our nation was founded as a Christian nation, and Texas is a Christian state.”

However, critics of the new rule allege that it excludes other religions, violates the separation between church and state, and hurts teacher autonomy.

“Teachers need to have their autonomy,” board member Evelyn Brooks said during a board hearing, according to ABC News. “They’ve been selecting books for decades, for years. This is nothing new. This is not a new concept to teachers. We are simply giving them a mandated list, which I believe is unconstitutional, but regardless of what I believe, let’s not take their autonomy away.”

Of course, we live in a day and age when many teachers are “autonomously” choosing to indoctrinate children with blatant lies:

ADVERTISEMENT

Meanwhile, Antero Garcia, a professor in the graduate school of education at Stanford University and a former high school English teacher, told ABC News that he believes these sorts of rules could soon start showing up elsewhere.

“Oftentimes, where Texas goes, other states will follow, right? So, this is a pretty substantial move that I could imagine other states picking up and moving forward with as a possibility,” he explained.

He also noted that the Bible “has been taught as a work of literature across non-religious and secular contexts” and is “an important formative work of literature, whether or not we want to think of it as doctrine or gospel.”

“There is literary value in reading the Bible, and I don’t want to diminish that kind of obvious point,” he argued.

ADVERTISEMENT

But, he continued, since this rule only applies to Christianity, he expects kids in Texas to be essentially steered towards the religion.

“You are going to get substantial exposure to a singular text across your public schooling experience in ways where you aren’t going to get an other kind of religious text anywhere else in that mandated list,” he said. “I could imagine this orienting young people towards particular kinds of dispositions that are rooted in Christianity as a result.”

Board member LJ Francis, for his part, believes the new rule will produce very awesome outcomes.

“I would suspect that there’s going to be growing pains, just like any change in education … [but] I think we’ll see the reading scores go up, and I think we’ll see children just learning and loving to read again,” he confidently told CNN.

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles