God Bless Texas: first state to include Bible as required reading in schools
Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate says:
"God Bless Texas as they are always the first promoting moral traditional values. They were the first state to require the posting of the Ten Commandents in the schools, the first state to prohibit transgender surgery on children as butchery and the first state to put age restrictions on pornography directed at children. And now they are the first state to require reading the Bible. Amen."
For the first time, the Texas Board of Education has approved a statewide mandatory reading list that includes Bible stories, affecting about 5.5 million public school students.
After the board's vote on Friday, roughly 11% of the total U.S. public school population will be required to read at least 200 passages from the Bible as part of their curriculum.
10 of the school board's 15 members are Republican.
In 2025, Texas also passed a bill requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Despite legal pushback, the measure was ultimately upheld by a Fifth Circuit court.
Some argue that the new list is unconstitutional, citing the landmark 1962 Supreme Court Case Engel v. Vitale and the general notion of the separation of church and state.
In Engel v. Vitale, the court ruled that mandatory, school-sponsored prayer violated the government's prohibition of establishing an official state religion outlined in the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
Meanwhile, the separation of church and state, though derived from the Establishment Clause, does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. Instead, President Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter that the First Amendment built "a wall of separation between church & state," though he advocated for the Christian faith throughout his life in public service, even attending worship services at the Capitol building as Vice President and President.