{"id":31553,"date":"2026-04-15T13:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=31553"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:17:08","slug":"texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum","title":{"rendered":"Texas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Texas State Board of Education has given its preliminary approval to a public school required reading list that includes passages from the Bible. The list would take effect in 2030, with a 9-5 vote moving the list forward. All five votes against came from the Board\u2019s five Democrats. The list could see more revisions before its final approval in June. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) designed the list, which originally included 300 books. The list was criticized for its perceived lack of diversity and inclusion of Biblical texts, including The Road to Damascus, where the persecutor of Christians Saul meets Jesus on the way to Damascus and becomes the great Apostle Paul and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son is a parable told by Jesus where a wayward son takes his inheritance and squanders it, only to be met with grace and love when the repentant young man returns to his father. The Old Testament Book of Job is also included alongside titles like Cat in the Hat<\/em> and The Outsiders<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Around 100 books were eventually removed from the list, including Frederick Douglass\u2019s \u201cWhat to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?\u201d The new list was proposed by Republican member Keven Ellis, who stated the Agency looked at many other state reading lists for examples. \u201cThere are other states, many other states, who have recommended reading lists. To my knowledge, there is not one that will have a required reading list as robust as this, that will be common for every student across the state,\u201d he said. Educators, however, have pushed back, saying the current list would be \u201cmathematically impossible\u201d to teach during a typical 36-week school year. \u201cI believe that an acceptable list would be one that\u2019s created with teacher expertise, leaning on the strengths of everyone involved in this work. There\u2019s still time. There\u2019s no prize for making this decision quickly. We have time to build something great for our Texas students, and they deserve it,\u201d said<\/a> Markesha Tisby, president of Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts.<\/p>\n

The reading list has received pushback of another kind for its inclusion of Biblical passages. Supporters insist that the passages will give greater context to Christianity\u2019s impact on the United States. Critics, however, insist it violates the separation of church and state. Shannon Trejo, TEA\u2019s deputy commissioner of school programs, previously said such religious texts were to be used as companion texts with other works. \u201cA lot of great teachers will pick a novel, and then pick a companion text or text sets that support kids engaging in that novel,\u201d said Trejo. \u201cYou can’t read Animal Farm and not know about the Bolshevik Revolution or the Russian Revolution. If you don’t have that background, it really does make the book harder to understand and engage with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Texas State Board of Education has given its preliminary approval to a public school required reading list that includes passages from the Bible. The list would take effect in 2030, with a 9-5 vote moving the list forward. All five votes against came from the Board\u2019s five Democrats. The list could see more revisions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":31556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas board advances reading list including Bible passages, sparking debate over education, diversity, and church-state separation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas board advances reading list including Bible passages, sparking debate over education, diversity, and church-state separation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-15T17:17:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/04\/Bible-in-School_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum","description":"Texas board advances reading list including Bible passages, sparking debate over education, diversity, and church-state separation.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum","og_description":"Texas board advances reading list including Bible passages, sparking debate over education, diversity, and church-state separation.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2026-04-15T17:17:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/04\/Bible-in-School_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum","name":"Texas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/04\/Bible-in-School_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-15T17:17:08+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-15T17:17:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Texas board advances reading list including Bible passages, sparking debate over education, diversity, and church-state separation.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/04\/Bible-in-School_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/04\/Bible-in-School_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/04\/texas-takes-a-big-step-forward-towards-adding-the-bible-to-public-school-curriculum#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Texas Takes a Big Step Forward Towards Adding the Bible to Public School Curriculum"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31559,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31553\/revisions\/31559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}