FOLLOW US

Beginning in 2030, the Texas Bible reading mandate will add selected biblical passages to the statewide literary canon, raising questions about religious neutrality in public education.

The Texas Bible reading mandate will require more than 5 million public school students to study selected biblical stories and passages as part of the statewide literary curriculum. The Republican-controlled State Board of Education approved the new literary lists Friday. Schools will begin implementing them during the 2030–31 academic year.

The decision does not require students to pray, participate in worship, or complete devotional Bible study. Instead, Texas will require schools to present selected passages and Bible-based stories as part of English-language arts instruction. That distinction is legally important, but it has not ended the controversy.

Supporters argue that students need biblical literacy to understand Western literature, American history, and the cultural references found throughout both. Critics say the state has built a required canon that privileges Christianity while excluding sacred texts from most other faith traditions.

What the Texas Bible Reading Mandate Requires

The Texas Education Agency’s rule says the works on the statewide list “shall be included” at each designated grade level. Students must read the assigned works in full unless the list calls for an excerpt.

The required selections represent the minimum amount of literature schools must teach. Local districts may add books, poems, speeches, and other readings, but they cannot simply replace the state-mandated works with their own choices.

A 2023 state law directed education officials to create a required literary list for each grade. The board ultimately adopted a much broader statewide canon that reaches from kindergarten through high school. Most of the list is not religious. It includes novels, plays, poems, speeches, myths, historical documents, and classic children’s literature.

Students will encounter works such as A Wrinkle in Time, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein, Fahrenheit 451, The Crucible, and Of Mice and Men. The lists also include Aesop’s fables, Native American stories, presidential speeches, and works by authors including Langston Hughes, Ray Bradbury, Frederick Douglass, and Anne Frank.

The dispute centers on which religious texts Texas chose to place alongside them and which traditions the state left out.

Bible Readings Begin in Elementary School

The required material introduces Christian and biblical stories early.

First graders will encounter a state-produced version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Third graders will read The Road to Damascus, another state-created text based on the New Testament account of the Apostle Paul’s conversion.

The broader elementary list also includes picture-book versions of stories such as David and Goliath and Daniel in the lions’ den.

By sixth grade, students will read Matthew 6:25–34, a passage commonly titled “Do Not Be Anxious.” The passage tells followers not to worry about food, clothing, or tomorrow and directs them to seek the kingdom of God.

Seventh graders will read the Book of Jonah and 1 Corinthians 13, the New Testament passage frequently used in Christian weddings because of its description of love.

Eighth graders will encounter the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. The passage includes statements such as “Blessed are the meek” and “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

The readings continue through high school. English I includes David and Goliath and Lamentations 3. English II pairs Frankenstein with the Tower of Babel, while English III includes Ecclesiastes 3, widely known for the line that there is a season and a time for every purpose.