Texas education leaders heard hours of public testimony on proposed changes to a state-approved reading list that would require Bible stories for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, as debate continued over the place of religion in public classrooms. Speakers at the Texas State Board of Education framed the discussion as a question of whether the passages are necessary for understanding the nation’s history and morals or whether they violate the First Amendment’s limits on government-established religion.
The dispute comes as a wider national push unfolds to incorporate religion in schools, often in Republican-led states, with legislation and legal challenges following. Texas, a red state that is home to about one in 10 of the nation’s public school students, has helped set the agenda in recent years, including by adopting policies that link religious content to public education.
Nathan Irving, a pastor and father of eight from Myrtle Springs, Texas, argued that the curriculum should focus on truth, telling the board: “Our children need truth.” Irving added that “Truth is the only currency that never devalues. Investing truth into our children is the most loving thing that we can do for them,” and said, “This is the truth. This country and this state were founded upon a Christian worldview. Like it or not, it is true.”
Other speakers cited the First Amendment’s establishment clause during their remarks. Rabbi Josh Fixler of Congregation Emanu El, a reform synagogue in Houston, said the proposed list would cross constitutional lines, telling the board that, “This list is a tool of proselytization that has no place in our public schools.” Fixler added that there is a difference between “teaching about religion and teaching religion,” and argued that the list would force teachers to “cross that line.”
Megan Boyden, a mother of three from Denton, Texas, presented the proposal as an infringement on her family’s religious practice and raised concerns about students whose beliefs differ. Boyden told the board that “As a Christian mother, it is my right and responsibility to teach our family’s religion,” and said, “It is not the state’s job to shed through the lens of a teacher who may not share the same beliefs I do.” She asked whether Bible passages would be taught in ways that conflict with her beliefs and pressed the question of what the proposal means for “non-Christian students.”
The proposed reading list would stem from a state law passed in 2023 that called for creating a state-approved list of high-quality materials. Under the proposals discussed at the meeting, third graders would study the Road to Damascus, a story about Paul’s transformation, and seniors would read the Book of Job, which recounts how a man’s faith is tested after he loses everything.
The list would also include other widely known works, according to the discussion, including classics such as Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat,” stories about the national folk hero Daniel Boone, and books featuring figures such as Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr., along with a book about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
Texas has already approved an optional curriculum that incorporates the Bible for kindergarten through fifth grade. The board has also been considering social studies standards that critics have said are too state-centric, including requirements for students to identify the Texas flag as a symbol of Texas pride and to recognize the state song “Texas, Our Texas,” as well as instruction related to Texas Independence.
Some speakers argued that the board’s direction could reduce how much time most students spend learning about U.S. history and that the state’s standards should be rethought. Allison Cardwell, a mother of a fourth grader and a fifth grade social studies teacher, urged the board to rethink the standards, saying fifth grade would be the only time most Texas students would receive instruction in U.S. history until high school.
A final vote on the reading list changes is expected in June. If the Texas State Board of Education approves the changes, they would take effect in 2030. Texas has previously allowed chaplains in public schools starting in 2023, and last year a Republican-led mandate for Ten Commandments displays took effect in the state, though around two dozen districts took the posters down after legal challenges.