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Texas Board Adds Bible Stories to Required K-12 Reading List
The Texas State Board of Education voted Friday to mandate Bible stories in public school reading lists. The curriculum takes effect in 2030 for elementary students and later for higher grades.
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The Texas State Board of Education voted Friday to approve a required K-12 reading list that mandates the teaching of Bible stories in public schools. The 15-member board, which is majority-Republican, passed the measure, making Texas the first state in recent history to adopt such a requirement.
The reading list will not take effect until 2030 for elementary school students, with higher grades following afterward.
Younger elementary students will learn classic children’s Bible stories such as David versus Goliath. Fourth-graders will begin reading passages about Jesus in the New Testament. By middle school, students will read additional passages about Jesus, including the Sermon on the Mount.
High school students will study specific Bible passages alongside works by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Texas enacted a law in 2025 requiring all public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. This marks the first time since 1963 that the Bible has returned to Texas classrooms.
In that year the U.S. Supreme Court issued an 8-1 ruling that declared daily Bible readings and school prayers mandated by state government unconstitutional. The board is also considering pairing Bible stories with U.S.
History in the new social studies curriculum, with a vote expected on Friday.
