Texas Mandates Scripture in Schools While Waging War on Islam
On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education voted to do something no other state has done so boldly: make the Bible required reading for every public school student in the state.
The board approved a new required reading list for more than 5 million K-12 public school students that includes stories from the Bible, affecting every grade level. Elementary students will be required to read picture-book versions of “David and Goliath” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den,” middle schoolers must read passages from the Sermon on the Mount, while high schoolers will study Adam and Eve and the parable of the prodigal son.
The changes take effect in 2030.
The constitutional alarm bells are ringing loudly.
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits government from endorsing or advancing religion. A federal judge already struck down a similar Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools in 2025, finding it unconstitutional. Yet Texas is pressing forward, embedding Christian scripture not as optional enrichment, but as mandatory curriculum for 5.5 million religiously diverse students.
In recent years, Texas leaders have broadly eliminated studies of racial and cultural diversity while expanding schools’ abilities to introduce Christianity to students. In 2023, the state became the first to allow chaplains to counsel students, and the following year approved a measure offering more funding to schools that teach an optional Bible-infused elementary curriculum.
The hypocrisy becomes glaring when you examine how Texas treats Islam.
A “Sharia-Free Caucus” in the Texas House boasts 38 Republican members, and the March Republican primary ballot included a nonbinding referendum on banning Sharia law, which 95% of GOP voters approved. Senator John Cornyn has declared that “Sharia law has no place in American courts or communities,” and Senator Ted Cruz has proclaimed “Sharia law shall never be allowed in the United States of America.”
Meanwhile, conservative activist groups rallied to “keep Islam out of social studies,” and the State Board of Education rejected lessons about Muslim contributions to algebra and astronomy. One board member even responded to a Muslim advocacy group’s testimony by saying “Texas is a Christian state” and suggesting Muslims who disagreed should be “buying them tickets to the Middle East.”
This is the core contradiction: Texas politicians rail against one religion’s moral code being imposed on public life, while simultaneously mandating another religion’s scripture in every public school classroom. Sharia, it should be noted, is simply a moral code that guides those who practice Islam — other religions have their own equivalents, including the Catholic Code of Canon Law and Judaism’s Halakhah.
Compelling five million students to read the Bible is, by any honest reckoning, the state doing precisely what it accuses Muslims of wanting to do.
The Constitution doesn’t permit religious favoritism. If Texas wouldn’t tolerate Quranic passages as mandatory reading in public schools — and it clearly wouldn’t — then it has no business making the Bible compulsory either.
Religious freedom means freedom for everyone, or it means nothing at all.
Sources:
- NBC News / ms.now: Texas Board of Education approves required K-12 reading list with Bible stories (June 26, 2026) — https://www.ms.now/news/texas-approves-public-schools-bible-reading-list
- CNN: Texas State Board of Education votes to require millions of students to study Bible stories (June 26, 2026) — https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/26/us/texas-schools-bible-curriculum-vote
- KERA News: Texas Republicans announce ‘Sharia Free Texas’ caucus targeting state’s Muslims (March 6, 2026) — https://www.keranews.org/politics/2026-03-06/texas-republicans-announce-sharia-free-texas-caucus-targeting-states-muslims
- Fort Worth Report: Tarrant activists, officials ask Texas education board to ‘keep Islam out of social studies’ (April 12, 2026) — https://fortworthreport.org/2026/04/12/tarrant-activists-officials-ask-texas-education-board-to-keep-islam-out-of-social-studies/
- The UnPopulist: Texas Republicans Are Moving From Demonizing Muslims to Stripping Away Their Rights (March 27, 2026) — https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/texas-republicans-are-moving-from
- PBS NewsHour: The rise of anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric in Texas (May 2026) — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/republican-campaigns-target-muslims-in-texas
For years, Austin City Council members have been secretly voting on public utility issues without leaving a paper trail. Austin Energy finally acknowledged the practice after KUT News reviewed more than 1,000 meetings, exposing the utility’s false claims that these votes were being properly documented. (KUT 90.5)
(Episode from June 26, 2026)
Who will pay for the new curriculum materials and the training that could come with them? (CBS Austin)
Austin ISD is delaying its district-wide school boundary realignment by one year.
Meanwhile, the school system is rolling out major transportation changes beginning in August as part of the district’s newly approved 2026–27 budget, which includes over $200 million in cuts.
Ascension Seton held the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for their new Women’s Hospital, located at 1201 W. 38th St. in central Austin.
Austin luxury Realtor Kumara Wilcoxon is off the hook for formal discipline. The Texas Real Estate Commission closed a complaint against the Kuper Sotheby’s agent due to a lack of evidence, though TREC staff attorney Kenneth Herring did issue an advisory letter expressing “concern” over her handling of the multimillion-dollar listing in question. (Austin Business Journal)
The family of an Austin man is now suing two local businesses after a man was killed by a falling tree in May, alleging the death could have been prevented.
The widow and the daughter of Maurice Pierce, one of the four men wrongfully accused in the 1991 Texas yogurt shop murders, have confirmed they signed a multimillion-dollar settlement with the city of Austin.
For decades, Maurice Pierce, Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, and Forrest Welborn lived under the shadow of the Yogurt Shop Murders, a crime that left an indelible mark on Austin and forever changed the lives of the the families of the victims: Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers, and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison. All four men were ultimately declared innocent and later exonerated after investigators linked another man to the killings. After reporting on this case for more 30 years, “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty speaks with Pierce’s widow and daughter about the devastating toll of a wrongful accusation, their family’s fight to clear his name, a financial settlement, and what justice means when it arrives decades too late.
Austin police have provided new details on the stabbing death of a South Austin man whose body was discovered Wednesday during a welfare check. (Austin Police Department)
An unloaded handgun was found in a daycare student’s backpack in Pflugerville earlier this month. No one was hurt, and police say no charges were filed as officials review policies.
Federal immigration enforcement activity occurred in Uhland early Friday, the city’s police department confirmed on social media.
The City of Cedar Park is moving its emergency dispatch center to a new space.
CapMetro is underseeing the relocation of a historic bridge that is being rebuilt at the northeast corner of Springdale and Bolm Road.
WEATHER
FRIDAY’S HIGH / LOW TEMPERATURES
AUSTIN-BERGSTROM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
CAMP MABRY
5-DAY FORECAST / AUSTIN, TEXAS
A massive plume of Saharan dust is on its way to Central Texas, and forecasters say the thickest wave could arrive as early as Monday.
Light to moderate levels of dust have already settled over Central Texas heading into the weekend, but a much denser plume is expected by the start of next week — potentially the thickest of the year so far.
The highest concentrations are forecast for Monday and Tuesday, June 29th and 30th, when skies across South-Central Texas could develop a noticeably darker haze and air quality may turn poor.
The Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi hit its full stride Friday, with the party’s top candidates firing up thousands of delegates and a surprise appearance stealing the show.
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta — the 96-year-old co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers of America — made an unannounced appearance on stage, urging the crowd of activists to go all out on voter turnout this fall and calling for a massive local organizing push to turn Texas blue. “The eyes of the world are going to be on Texas,” Huerta told the crowd.
Senate nominee James Talarico and gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa closed the day with back-to-back speeches that leaned hard into populist economic themes, accusing Republicans of using culture wars to distract from what the candidates called corruption and the hollowing out of the middle class. Hinojosa dubbed it the “Greg Abbott Corruption Tax,” while Talarico warned that “billionaires are buying the system” — telling the crowd, “They divide us so we don’t notice they’re picking our pockets.”
The Republicans fired back. Governor Greg Abbott‘s campaign staged counter-programming outside the convention, rolling out a longhorn bull and a taco stand with names mocking Talarico, while also launching a website called “RadicalTexas” aimed at painting Democrats as out of step with the state.
Friday’s program also featured Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at the Blue Wave Luncheon and remarks from Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin during the General Session. The convention wraps up Saturday with Senator Bernie Sanders headlining the closing day.
WATCH FRIDAY’S ENTIRE SESSION
(Episode from June 26, 2026)
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Texas GOP officials brought Paige the elephant into Houston for this month’s convention without the city permit required for wild animals.
Sen. John Cornyn is breaking with Gov. Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton and the Texas GOP over a push to close Republican primaries in Texas.
Kerr County received an initial grant award for $1 million to help fund flood warnings sirens, but officials say it isn’t enough.
Focus has been put on early warnings systems, and more specifically sirens.
Some in Travis County are wondering when they might finally be installed.
Jim Hogg County is the latest location in Texas for a confirmed case of New World screwworm, plus more cases confirmed in Crockett County.
Meanwhile, The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) received confirmation of equine herpes myeloencephalopathy (EHM), the neurologic disease linked to equine herpes virus (EHV-1), in a donkey.
Texas Department of Safety officials captured a fugitive with help from Marble Falls police.
A viral video showing a Boeing 777 cargo jet flying low over a Horseshoe Bay runway has triggered an FAA investigation. The aircraft’s owner claims the flyby was part of a marketing video but said the pilots flew lower than expected.
On July 4th, 2025, devastating floodwaters ripped through the Texas Hill Country, killing more than 130 people.
After the Flood, a new podcast from the Texas Newsroom and PBS’s Frontline, has followed survivors over the last year and tries to find out why this happened – and whether it could happen again.
In this first episode, you’ll hear what happened during those harrowing early morning hours of the flood. And you’ll meet a father who had just sent his daughter to Camp Mystic two weeks earlier.
(Episode from June 26, 2026)
Rep. Gene Wu talks a newly launched effort by house Democrats to build cross-state legislative coalitions across the American South to counter Republican legislation. Rep. John Rosenthal lays out his qualifications for the railroad commission, and Senator Bettencourt looks back at the legislative aftermath of the devastating Hill Country flash floods.
(Episode from June 26, 2026)
SPORTS
2026 WORLD CUP: France and Senegal turned Friday into a showcase of world-class football at the 2026 World Cup, combining for nine goals in a pair of lopsided victories that sent a warning to the rest of the tournament. Spain added a clinical win over Uruguay while Belgium piled on five against New Zealand — but it was Senegal’s stunning 5–0 demolition of Iraq that had fans talking.
Six matches, two shutouts, and no shortage of drama as the group stage races toward its finish.
MLB: It was a tale of two Texas teams on Friday night — one surging, one struggling.
Nathan Eovaldi shut down Toronto for seven masterful innings as the Rangers edged the Blue Jays 5–4 in a late scare, while across the AL, Houston’s night in Detroit turned into a disaster. The Astros were pummeled 8–0, with starter Spencer Arrighetti unable to survive the third inning and Detroit’s lineup going deep three times. The Rangers inch forward; the Astros have some serious questions to answer heading into the weekend.
The Rangers won a thriller, jumping on the Blue Jays early with three runs in the first inning and two more in the third to build a 5–0 cushion. Nathan Eovaldi was the story on the mound — he threw seven brilliant shutout innings, striking out nine while walking just one on 92 pitches as Texas beat the Blue Jays 5-4. Toronto mounted a scary eighth-inning comeback, scoring all four of their runs on a big frame that included a Kazuma Okamoto homer (2 RBI) and a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. two-RBI hit, but Jacob Latz slammed the door in the ninth for the save. Justin Foscue led Texas at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBI, while Wyatt Langford added three hits. (NBC Sports)
A rough night for Houston.
Spencer Arrighetti got knocked around badly, lasting just three innings while surrendering eight runs on five hits and five walks, giving up three home runs in the process, as Detroit blanked the Astros 8-0. (NBC Sports)
ON THE SCHEDULE
AL WEST STANDINGS
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: At the 30th Manning Passing Academy, the Longhorns’ starting quarterback, Archie Manning, discussed how summer workouts have gone ahead of his second season as a starter.
A Texas man invited World Cup fans from Poland and France for two-step lessons and a trip to Buc-ee’s. Both couples say they fell in love with the lifestyle.
