- The Texas Senate has passed two bills bringing Christianity into public schools. One bill, passed Tuesday, would require a mandatory period of prayer, while another would put the Ten Commandments into every public schoolroom. The bills now go to the state House and have the support of state leaders.
Texas students could be required to participate in a mandatory period of prayer and the Ten Commandments could be displayed in classrooms under a pair of bills passed by the state Senate this week.
The controversial requirements now move to the state House, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 88-62. If passed there and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott (who in 2005 argued and won a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court defending a Ten Commandments monument at the Texas State Capitol), the bills would go into effect at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, praised the bill which would put the Ten Commandments in schools, saying in a statement that doing so would “ensure our students receive the same foundational moral compass as our state and country’s forefathers.”
The bill would require every public school classroom to display a 16-inch by 20-inch poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments in type large enough to be legible for a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.
The Ten Commandments bill passed one day after a separate bill that would force a mandatory period of praying and reading religious texts in school passed the Senate. That bill would require parents to sign a consent form allowing their children to participate and waiving their right to sue the district under First Amendment complaints.
The Ten Commandments bill was opposed not only by Democrats, but by a group of 166 faith leaders in the state, who called it a “misguided effort that undermines the faith and freedom we cherish.”
In a letter to the House and Senate, the group wrote: “The responsibility for religious education belongs to families, houses of worship, and other religious institutions — not the government. The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text. … We do not need to — and indeed should not — turn public schools into Sunday schools.”
The Texas push to put the Ten Commandments in classrooms comes one year after Louisiana’s governor signed a similar bill.