The Freedom From Religion Foundation is appalled at 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. What will this look like? 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.

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 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.

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.

“A mandatory public school reading list should never function as a bible lesson,” says FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor. “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.”

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.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 41,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 1,700 members and a chapter in Texas. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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