Bible-infused Texas reading list erodes students’ rights
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is excoriating the Texas State Board of Education’s decision to move forward with a state-mandated reading list that privileges Christian scripture.
The board has given the green light to the list in accordance with a recent legislative mandate. House Bill 1605, passed in 2023, required the creation of a K-12 reading list and directed the Texas Education Agency to develop state-owned textbooks. The board approved those textbooks, known as Bluebonnet Learning, in late 2024, and the state is currently working to correct roughly 4,200 errors in the materials. Meanwhile, Texas public schools will require the bible-infused reading list to be available to students beginning in 2030.
Middle and high school students will be asked to read two main books each year from the approved list, along with other related poems, speeches, historical texts and biblical excerpts. Students would be required to read a bible excerpt at most grade levels, starting in elementary school. The new curriculum would have students as young as 6 interact with biblical stories titled “Noah’s Ark,” “David and Goliath” — meant to be read aloud from picture books — and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” in their English classes. One of the required readings for high school English is the second chapter of Genesis, which concerns the creation of Adam and Eve.
“A mandatory public school reading list should never function as a bible lesson,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Texas is telling millions of children that one religion deserves the government’s seal of approval, while everyone else is an afterthought. That’s government-sponsored religious favoritism — and the First Amendment strictly forbids it.”
FFRF stands firmly behind the idea that public schools exist to educate students with diverse faith backgrounds, as well as those who adhere to no faith doctrine. Public schools are not Sunday schools, and elected officials have no business using state power to elevate one religion above all others. A required reading list that overwhelmingly favors Christian texts while excluding the writings and literary traditions of other faiths, not to mention the perspectives of millions of nonreligious Americans, sends an unmistakable message about who belongs and who does not.
“The separation of church and state is a valuable one for our country and for the protection of rights of every single member of our community, and I feel that the insistence of including one religion into our curriculum is very troublesome,” commented Gustavo Reveles, a Democrat on the Texas Board of Education.
The U.S. Constitution mandates government neutrality on matters of religion. Teaching about religion as history or literature can be appropriate when done objectively and without endorsement. However, compelling every student to read a curated selection of bible passages and Christian parables, while giving little or no comparable treatment to other traditions, crosses the line from education into religious promotion. Critics, including Jewish scholars and clergy, have already warned that the state’s invocation of “Judeo-Christian” values misrepresents Judaism while advancing a distinctly Christian worldview.
“This list is full of Christian texts that are inappropriate for public school classrooms,” Rabbi Joshua Bixler told the board before the vote. “As a rabbi and a parent of Jewish kids, I think it is vital that this board make a distinction between teaching about religion and teaching religion. This list will force teachers to cross that line.”
The board should be focusing on improving literacy, expanding access to diverse literature and ensuring students receive an appropriate, academically rigorous education. Instead, state officials are inserting themselves into religious questions that belong to families and faith communities, but not the government.
“Conversations about faith — they belong between parents, their children and their faith communities,” said James Hallamek of the Texas State Teachers Association. “These conversations should not be dictated by politicians or state education officials. When schools require religious texts and interpretations, it puts teachers in impossible positions of navigating conflicting beliefs among families.”
Antero Garcia, a professor of education at Stanford University, added his take.
“You are going to get substantial exposure to a singular text across your public schooling experience in ways where you aren’t going to get any other kind of religious text anywhere else in that mandated list,” he said. “I could imagine this orienting young people toward particular kinds of dispositions that are rooted in Christianity as a result.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the FFRF Action Fund will continue to oppose efforts that erode students’ and families’ constitutional rights. Religious freedom means that every student is free to practice, or not practice, religion without government pressure or favoritism. That guarantee is fundamental to both public education and American democracy.
