Texas Approves Bible Readings for 5M Public School Students
The board’s 9-5 vote makes Texas the first state in recent history to require Bible passages in a statewide K-12 reading list.
- 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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Texas becomes first state to include Bible stories as required reading in schools
For the first time, the Texas Board of Education has approved a statewide mandatory reading list that includes Bible stories, affecting about 5.5 million public school students.
Madrid, Spain. The Texas State Board of Education, controlled by the Republican Party, approved a new list of mandatory readings for state public schools that includes several texts of the Bible, the Christian sacred book, despite criticism for violating student religious freedom.The list of readings has been approved by nine votes in favour, five against and one abstention.For example, students in fifth grade will have to read excerpts from the…
Millions of students in the public schools of an American state will have to study Bible passages in the school program, after the local authorities have approved a new list of compulsory readings. The decision, which will come into force in 2030, stirred up controversy and accusations that it favors Christianity to the detriment of other religious traditions.
I was pleased to read yesterday that even Texas decided to exalt the western identity and limit the various alternative cultures that now dominated and dominate in America precisely because of the cancel culture. From the gathering of the Young League of Marittima, the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara exults for the introduction of the mandatory reading of the Bible for five million Texan students. For the minister it is no longer time f…
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