Texas is pushing forward with plans to make parts of the Bible required reading in public classrooms

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Thursday 25 June 2026 10:45 EDT


Texas is poised to mandate Bible stories as required reading for over 5 million public school students, a move that has reignited a fierce national debate over widening efforts across the U.S. to introduce more religion into classrooms.

The Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education is scheduled to cast a final vote on the proposal this Friday. This follows Texas's 2023 decision to become the largest state to require the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a measure that drew significant legal challenges.

The controversial plan faces strong opposition from critics who argue it violates the constitutional separation of church and state, unduly elevates Christianity's role in national history, and prioritizes it over other faiths. Conversely, supporters contend that Judeo-Christian traditions were fundamental to the nation’s founding and that this influence should be accurately reflected in public school curricula.

President Donald Trump has advocated for protecting and expanding religious expression in public schools nationwide. Texas, a deeply conservative state that educates approximately one in ten U.S. public school students, frequently sets precedents in such matters. In 2023, Texas became the first state to permit the hiring of chaplains for student counseling. Subsequently, the board narrowly approved an optional Bible-infused curriculum for elementary schools.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/texas-bible-stories-public-schools-donald-trump-mandate-b3002720.html

[hookaleft]

1. It is unconstitutional. Period

[tishaLA]

3. You think that's gonna stop this SCOTUS?

They'll savor the opportunity to overturn decades of precedent.

[Initech]

5. These psychos are so fucking weird.

No, we should not give up our rights to these fuckheads.

[TheRickles]

20. Centuries.

[ancianita]

6. Education, like elections, is left to the states according to the Tenth Amendment, which leaves the responsibility

of establishing, funding, and regulating public schools to individual states.

All states' curricula are decided by the public through their state boards of education.
If this is a state board of ed decision, it can stand constitutional scrutiny. But parents have recourse. If parents don't want their children exposed to bible texts, they have the right to have their children read other texts, and principals are bound to honor parents' wishes, since Bible readings are not revealed here to be core graduation requirements. If they are, parents could get alternative readings, even though state boards of educations have approved Bible texts.

Overall, the separation of church and state is an idea derived from the First Amendment (The actual phrase originated from a private letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. In it, he described the First Amendment as building a "wall of separation between Church & State" ), but his phrasing is not literally a written part of US founding documents.

It's not a done deal if a plaintiff with standing (maybe a teachers' statewide organization, or a statewide parents organization) files against the decision in the courts.

[jls4561]

2. I would recommend the story of Judith and Holofernes.

Holofernes is a local warlord who is about to pillage Judith’s village. Judith, sure the pillaging will also include raping, enters Holofernes’ tent, gets him drunk and cuts off his head, thus saving her village and her people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_beheading_Holofernes

It seems to me to be a good story for these troubled times. Of course, the beheading should be metaphorical.

[Initech]

4. Hey MAGA assholes! Our government is not your church! Do you get that?

[dickthegrouch]

7. Ask them to explain who 'begat' whom to create human #5

There were three guys and one woman. Where did the incest occur?
Was Cain destined to become an incel if Abel had lived?
Enquiring minds want to know.

[paleotn]

12. Questions I had as a kid that sowed the seeds apostasy later in life.

God found a way or stop asking questions / just have faith were not valid answers. So if that can't be true, what else isn't true? Pull one loose thread and the whole thing unravels.

[ColoringFool]

17. The "Others" Were From Outside Of Eden.

[ananda]

8. Irony is dead.

...

[Americanme]

9. Got to force kids to believe in the invisible man

before they are tainted by rational thought.

[paleotn]

10. Why don't they just secede again and get it over with.

Take the deep south and corn country with them and they can all go off and be Jebusland. Forced religion. A tiny plutocracy that owns everything. And poverty kids on every corner. You know, a real shit hole country. Maybe then the rest of us can have nice things.

[sakabatou]

11. Let's make a similar bill that would require the reading of other religion's books

[FullySupportDems]

13. You know, if they believed in the Golden Rule

As all good Christians should, you wouldn't want to force your religion on others. You wouldn't think it's right. These people don't believe in anything, but money.

Like Ice Tea said in his remake of Comfortably Numb, "If there is a god, we probably make him sick"

[purr-rat beauty]

14. Uh...

So....OT? NT?

IF OT....assholes best not teach it in mixed fibers

[BadgerMom]

15. I taught English at the secondary level in California. I know how I'd respond to such lawlessness.

It would take me an afternoon to put together lesson plans that included readings from the Koran, the Torah and Talmud, the Vedas, the Book of Mormon…You get the picture. I know it would cause a ruckus. Deal with it, you small-minded assholes.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

16. Texas has squandered its brand to foolishness.

[J_William_Ryan]

18. "They'll savor the opportunity to overturn decades of precedent."

Correct.

This is a Court dominated by conservative ideologues long hostile to settled, accepted precedent – Establishment Clause jurisprudence in particular.

[Dr. T]

19. Would atheist kids have to read religious books?

What exactly are they trying to accomplish? Do they really think that religion will stop murder, rape, school shootings, and other crimes? How has that been working with the Ten Commandments in classrooms? My guess is that the crime rate needle hasn't budged at all.