TEXAS MADE BIBLE PASSAGES REQUIRED FOR 5 MILLION STUDENTS
The Texas required reading list approved by the state board puts Bible passages in front of more than 5 million public school students.
The Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education gave final approval to the statewide literary-works list on June 26, 2026.
Supporters argued that “Judeo-Christian traditions played a central role in the country’s founding” and should be represented in public-school teaching, the Guardian reported.
Opponents said the list breaches constitutional church-state separation, lacks diversity and gives preference to Christianity over other faiths.
What’s on the list
The list grew out of a 2023 Texas law that required education officials to designate at least one literary work for every grade level. The board went further than that minimum and recommended multiple texts for each grade.
The Associated Press reported that the list includes around 200 texts, among them Bible passages, essays and books. Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations” is on it, along with excerpts from the New Testament.
The Texas Tribune reported that Bible material appears across grades, including stories about Adam and Eve, the Beatitudes and the Prodigal Son.
Excerpts from Jonah and Psalms are required beginning in seventh grade, the Guardian reported. High-school students get excerpts from Genesis and Lamentations.
The Guardian also reported that the curriculum leans on older works, many by white male authors, in a state where most public-school students are Hispanic or Black.
Teachers can still assign books outside the list, but those assignments do not replace the required selections. Teachers criticized the mandate for cutting into their ability to decide what students read, AP reported.
The board approved the reading lists alongside changes to social studies lessons, the Tribune reported.
What happened next
The rollout is staggered and begins with elementary students in 2030, the Guardian reported.
On September 22, 2026, the Texas State Board of Education posted an adopted high-school literary-works rule. It says required works are to be read in their entirety unless otherwise indicated, and it treats the listed works as a minimum, so additional works can be chosen locally.
The rule also lets a parent temporarily remove a child from instruction in a required work that conflicts with the parent’s religious or moral beliefs. The parent has to give the teacher a written statement.
