Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public schools students under proposals that are putting the state at the center of another contentious wrangling over the role of religion in classrooms.
Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours Tuesday before the state education board arguing about the reading list for the state’s 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th graders. The debate is part of widening efforts in the U.S. to incorporate religion in schools, mostly in Republican-led states, driving legislation and legal action.
Nationally, President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in public schools. And Texas, a red state that is home to about one in 10 of the nation’s public school students, often helps set the agenda.
Texas became the first state to allow chaplains to counsel students, in 2023. And just last year, a Republican-led mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools took effect in the state, although around two dozen districts took them down because of a lawsuit.
But while the debate over Texas’ reading list could have national implications, to the speakers the issue boiled down to whether the passages are essential to understanding the nation’s history and morals—or unconstitutional.
“Our children need truth,” said Nathan Irving, a pastor and father of eight from Myrtle Springs, Texas. “Truth is the only currency that never devalues. Investing truth into our children is the most loving thing that we can do for them. This is the truth. This country and this state were founded upon a Christian worldview. Like it or not, it is true.”
Final vote on the changes still ahead
A final vote on the list is expected in June, and if approved by the Texas State Board of Education, the changes would take effect in 2030.
Several speakers cited the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
“This list is a tool of proselytization that has no place in our public schools,” Rabbi Josh Fixler, of Congregation Emanu El, a reform synagogue in Houston, told the board. “There is a difference between teaching about religion and teaching religion, and this list will force teachers to cross that line.”
Megan Boyden, a mother of three from Denton, Texas, described is as a direct attack on her private faith.
“As a Christian mother, it is my right and responsibility to teach our family’s religion,” she 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. Will Bible passages be taught in conflict with my beliefs?
“What,” she asked, “of non-Christian students?”
The list also includes classics like Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, and stories about the national folk hero Daniel Boone. And there are also works by famous African Americans like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. and a book about Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad fame.
In putting together the list, the state board of education had leaned into the notion that to be literate, all students should understand a set of shared texts and knowledge, including knowledge about the Bible.
Researchers agree that students with more general background knowledge tend to be stronger readers, but the question of what belongs in a K-12 canon remains hotly contested. Meanwhile, many historians dispute the contention that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation despite many of the founders’ personal religious beliefs.
Texas has already approved optional curriculum that incorporates the Bible
The GOP-leaning board previously approved a new Bible-infused curriculum that is optional for schools to incorporate in kindergarten through fifth grades.
The board also is considering social studies standards that have been criticized as too state-centric, not focused enough on world events and rife with an undercurrent of American exceptionalism. They call for students to “identify the Texas flag as a symbol of Texas pride,” and recognize the state song “Texas, Our Texas.”
Students also are supposed to be able to understand stories about Texas Independence.
Curriculum debates crop up occasionally. Over the years, state boards in places such as Kansas have debated whether the teaching of evolution should reflect doubt about the well-established scientific theory—and leave room for arguments that the universe’s complexity points to an intelligent design.
Allison Cardwell, a mother of a fourth grader and a fifth grade social studies teacher, urged the board to rethink the standards. She said fifth grade would be the only time most Texas students would receive instruction in U.S. history until high school.
“We have to ask ourselves, How can we expect to create citizens who value liberty, responsibility, and the principles this country was founded on, if we don’t ensure that they truly understand those foundations?” she said.
