Texas Mandates Bible Reading in Public Schools, First in the US

Texas becomes first US state to require Bible passages in schools under new K-12 reading list for 5 million students.

Texas students required to read Bible passages under new state reading list

Texas has just done what no other American state has done before.

On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education voted to approve the nation's first-ever statewide K-12 required reading list for public schools and it includes the Bible.

Students across Texas will soon be required to read passages from both the Old and New Testaments, alongside Anne Frank's diary and other Jewish and Holocaust-related texts, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The board voted 9-5, with one abstention, to adopt the list that will affect more than 5 million public school students.

This is not a suggestion list for teachers. It is law. Every child, in every grade, must read the books in full.

According to the Associated Press and Education Week, Texas is the first state in the US to have such a mandatory literary canon.

The list has about 200 texts in total. It mixes classics you would expect, "Johnny Appleseed" in second grade, "Charlotte's Web" in third, "The Phantom Tollbooth" in fifth, and Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" in high school with required Bible stories.

By fourth grade, children will read New Testament passages about Jesus. In seventh grade, they will study "Jonah and the Whale." Eighth graders will cover "The Eight Beatitudes" from the book of Matthew, and ninth graders will read chapter 3 of the Book of Lamentations.

The board also specified which version of the Bible must be used, to keep teaching uniform across districts.

Education experts say they have never seen anything like it. Antero Garcia, president of the National Council of Teachers of English and a Stanford professor, told AP he does not know of any other state with a mandatory reading list that includes religious texts.

Kasey Meehan of PEN America's Freedom to Read program called the move "unique" to Texas.

Supporters say it restores Judeo-Christian values and gives students a shared cultural foundation. Critics argue it crosses the line on church and state, and violates the First Amendment's establishment clause.

The decision follows years of debate in Texas over religion in classrooms — from a 2023 law requiring at least one state-approved literary work per grade, to last year's guidelines allowing Bible stories in elementary classes.

For now, Texas is setting the pace. With 5 million students affected, what happens in its classrooms is likely to shape the national conversation on what American children should read and who gets to decide.