What Texas parents should know about the new Bible curriculum mandate

Beginning in the 2030-2031 school year, Texas public school students from kindergarten through 12th grade will read Bible passages as part of a state-mandated reading list. Texas is the first state to require Biblical readings for all public school students.

The change raises immediate questions for families of ranging faith backgrounds about what students will be required to read, how other religions will be characterized and what legal options families may have.

What the board approved

The Texas State Board of Education voted 9-5-1 on June 26 to implement a required reading list of more than 200 literary works, including Bible passages. The vote came during a nearly 12-hour meeting where the board also revised the K-8 social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS. The board postponed most high school social studies changes to a later meeting.

About a dozen Bible stories will be part of the curriculum, including the Exodus from Egypt, the Ten Commandments and David and Goliath. Under the new mandate, each work on the list is to be read “in its entirety” — a departure from previous approaches in other states, which merely suggested certain texts.

Implementation will be staged from the 2030-2031 school year through 2033-2034. Board member Julie Pickren, of Pearland, pushed for a sooner rollout starting in 2027-2028. Shannon Trejo, the Texas Education Agency’s deputy commissioner of school programs, told the board that districts may use the reading list earlier if they choose, though necessary supplementary materials from publishers will not be available for a few years.

The constitutional backdrop

The 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Abington School District v. Schempp struck down a Pennsylvania law requiring student participation in religious activity as unconstitutional. That ruling still stands today.

An answered prayer

The mandated stories are ones long taught in Sunday schools and devotionals across Texas and the globe. In addition, educators will teach how the Bible shaped history and literature over the centuries.

State Board of Education member Brandon Hall, a pastor from Weatherford who voted for the mandate, framed the changes as a corrective. Speaking to the Freedom Fighters club in Arlington July 1, Hall said moral degeneracy, discipline issues and low literacy rates are products of removing the Bible from classrooms.

“We revised them for the first time in 16 years, and so that was a big, consequential deal, and then also the literary works list,” Hall, a Republican, told the club. “Really, I don’t want to overstate this, I don’t want to exaggerate it in any way, but I truly believe that it’s a historic moment.”

When the changes take full effect, Hall said, public school students will have “Texas values” once again.

Hall credited divine intervention, saying “Glory to God” for breaking down barriers, and called the mandate “just the beginning.”

How other religions are treated

Parents of faiths other than evangelical Christian spoke to the school board in the days leading up to their June 26 vote, saying several elements of the new K-8 social studies TEKS raise alarms bells.

The curriculum teaches Israel as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, wading into longstanding politics between Jewish people and Palestinians. The same curriculum includes Prophet Muhammed’s history of brutalizing Christians and Jewish people — a framing that Muslim families and interfaith advocates found issue with in public comment.

Board members also added lessons on the horrors of communism, why the Second Amendment was created and how counterculture increased the divorce rate.

During public comment, hundreds of Texans spoke and were largely split. One supporter applauded the board for teaching the Bible and keeping Sharia law out of public schools. Another said Judeo-Christian values should be upheld. An opponent said some of the reading materials were meant for Sunday schools, not public schools. Another condemned the preference shown for evangelical Christian translations of the Bible over a diversity of translations, inclusive of many denominations.

How did SBOE members vote?

Five board members voted no: Evelyn Brooks, Gustavo Reveles, Marisa Perez-Diaz, Staci Childs and Tiffany Clark. Rebecca Bell-Metereau was not present. The nine yes votes came from Pickren, LJ Francis, Will Hickman, Audrey Young, Keven Ellis, Tom Maynard, Hall, Pam Little and Aaron Kinsey.

Brooks, who represents parts of Central and North Texas, argued teachers should have more autonomy over the books than what the board is allowing.

“We were mandated to select at least one literary book, one literary text, and it’s snowballed into this, where we are now the book club Gestapo,” Brooks said.

Clark accused some board members of whitewashing history after Young amended the curriculum to remove one definition of slavery for third-graders, citing redundancy.

“It seems like everything that’s related to Black Americans, Mexican Americans, Muslim Americans, anybody who has contributed to history is being whitewashed to make things comfortable instead of what’s right,” Clark said.

Kinsey, chair of the board, disputed that, saying he counted 60 mentions of slavery in the curriculum, civil rights 73 times and Native American 70 times.

What is to come?

Hall, for his part, signaled that supporters see this as a starting point rather than a finish line.

“This is something I’m not going to vote away to some socialists,” Hall said. “This is something we have to protect and keep with everything that we have. I’m very confident this is a good step in the right direction. We still have a lot of fighting left to do. This is just the beginning, but we accomplished something big.”

This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 4:27 PM.