AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education voted to allow Bible-infused lessons for public schools across the state. 

The board voted 8-7 in favor of curriculum from the Texas Education Agency that includes Bible lessons for elementary reading and language arts classrooms. 

What You Need To Know

  • Texas’ education board has voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools

  • The approval Friday follows other Republican-led states that have pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms

  • The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education is optional for schools to adopt, but they’ll receive additional funding if they do so

  •  Parents and teachers who opposed the curriculum say the lessons will alienate students of other faith backgrounds

The board, which includes 11 Republicans and four Democrats, narrowly voted 8-7 to support the new curriculum in a preliminary vote on Tuesday.

One of the board members, a Republican, was recently appointed to the board by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. But starting next year, that seat will be filled by a Democrat who ran unopposed in the November election. 

Supporters and opponents of the Bible-infused materials spent hours this week giving impassioned pleas over religion in public education. 

Those against the modules say the Christian lessons might violate the First Amendment and may alienate students of different faiths, while supporters say the Bible is a core feature of American history. 

This vote comes after neighboring states Oklahoma and Louisiana have pushed to put the Bible and the Ten Commandments in every classroom, respectively. 

Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than 5 million students in Texas public schools.

With the new curriculum, Texas would be the first state to introduce Bible lessons in schools in this manner, according to Matthew Patrick Shaw, an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University.

Creating Bible-infused lessons

The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for more than 5 million students statewide, created its own instruction materials after a law passed in 2023 by the GOP-controlled Legislature required the agency to do so. The lesson plans were publicly released this spring.

The material draws on lessons from Christianity more than any other religion in the proposed reading and language arts modules for kindergarten through fifth grade, which critics say would alienate students from different faith backgrounds and potentially violate the First Amendment.

“This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Children who would read the material, she said, “are simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.”

More than 100 people testified at a board meeting this week that rung with emotion from parents, teachers and advocates. Supporters of the curriculum argued that the Bible is a core feature of American history and teaching it will enrich students’ learning.

“It is said that there are close to 300 common-day phrases that actually come from the Bible,” said Mary Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, a right-leaning advocacy group. "So students will benefit from being able to understand a lot of these references that are in literature and have a way to be able to comprehend them.”

Bringing religion into schools

Texas' plans to implement Biblical teachings in public school lesson plans is the latest effort by Republican-controlled states to bring religion into the classroom.

In Louisiana, a law to place the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms was blocked by a federal judge earlier this month. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law in June, prompting a group of Louisiana public school parents of different faiths to sue.

In Oklahoma, the state's top education official has tried to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in fifth through 12th grades. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to stop the Republican state superintendent's plan and his efforts to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for public schools.