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Texas education leaders are considering a major change that would require public school students to study passages from the Bible as part of their English Language Arts curriculum.
The proposal is part of a statewide reading list the Texas Education Agency created under House Bill 1605, a 2023 law that aims to give students a more consistent set of texts across grade levels.
The State Board of Education will take its first vote next week. If the plan moves forward this spring, Texas would become the first state in the country to write specific Bible stories into required reading for multiple grade levels.
Here’s what to know.
Why is Texas adding Bible passages now?
State officials say students often encounter very different texts depending on where they live, and this list is meant to create a shared foundation.
The TEA also says the selections were chosen because of their cultural and literary influence, not to promote a particular faith tradition.
Supporters say a unified list also helps publishers create simpler materials, so districts aren’t piecing together lessons on their own.
The broader goal, they say, is to streamline what schools teach without raising the workload for teachers.
Which Bible passages would Texas students be required to read?
The draft list includes hundreds of literary works for grades K-12. Among them are 11 passages from the Christian Bible that would become required reading if approved.
Some examples include:
- Do Not Be Anxious (Matthew 6:25–34) – Grade 6
- The Definition of Love (1 Corinthians 13) – Grade 7
- The Shepherd’s Psalm (Psalm 23) – Grade 7
- Jonah and the Whale (Book of Jonah) – Grade 7
- The Eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1–12) – Grade 8
- David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) – English I
- Lamentations 3 – English I
- The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9) – English II
- To Everything There Is a Season (Ecclesiastes 3) – English III
- The Book of Job (selected chapters) – English IV
The TEA notes that many classic texts contain biblical references, and students may need to understand the stories behind them to fully grasp larger themes.
Are these readings connected to the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum?
Not directly. Bluebonnet Learning is a full reading curriculum 17 Texas school districts have adopted on their own, including Fort Worth ISD. It includes a few biblical retellings and became a flashpoint in Fort Worth ISD last year.
The statewide literary list is separate, but TEA pulled three biblical retellings from Bluebonnet as optional texts for the new canon.
Those retellings are:
• The Golden Rule
• The Parable of the Prodigal Son
• The Road to Damascus
So the statewide list isn’t the same thing as Bluebonnet, but it borrows pieces of it.
How have Texas districts responded to religious content in curriculum?
Fort Worth ISD is one of the clearest examples. In 2025, the district adopted the Bluebonnet Learning reading curriculum, which contains several Christian stories, in its early grade units.
That decision drew weeks of public comment from parents, pastors, and community groups who worried it blurred the separation of church and state.
The curriculum is now in its first year of classroom use for the 2025-26 school year.
Fort Worth’s experience may offer a preview of how communities respond if the statewide list moves ahead with required Bible passages.
When would Bible readings start in Texas schools?
The SBOE will take a preliminary vote next week. If it passes, the board will spend the next few months reviewing public feedback and making revisions before a final vote in April 2026.
Even then, the change would not show up in classrooms right away. Publishers need about two and a half years to update materials, and the state must also adjust standardized tests to match the list.
Because of that timeline, the earliest students would see the new required readings is the 2030-2031 school year, according to the TEA.
Parents and educators can review the full proposed list on TEA’s website and submit comments directly to the board.
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Tiffani Jackson
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