The Texas State Board of Education voted on June 26, 2026, to adopt revised social studies standards and a required K-12 reading list that includes Bible passages, a package officials framed as the most sweeping standards update in years and timed amid broader planning for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) voted June 26 to adopt revised Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for social studies and to approve a required statewide K–12 reading list.
According to the SBOE, the revised social studies standards are designed to move students through major historical developments “from the rise of Western Civilization to the founding of the United States” and emphasize the country’s ongoing experiment in self-government. The board said the standards and reading list were developed to align what students read with the historical periods and topics they study.
The board’s approved reading list includes a mix of classic literature and historical texts and also includes Bible passages. Coverage of the vote by The Associated Press and Reuters described the move as unusual nationally and said it was approved after weeks of contentious public debate about religion’s place in public education.
State assessment results show low performance in eighth-grade social studies. In the 2024 STAAR administration, 32% of Texas eighth graders met the grade-level standard in social studies and 16% reached the “mastery” performance level, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The revised standards also reflect existing state curriculum requirements to teach about “the ideologies of communism and totalitarianism” in contrast to U.S. founding principles, a directive written into the Texas Education Code.
SBOE Chair Aaron Kinsey, who was appointed to the role by Gov. Greg Abbott in late 2023, said the board saw the timing as connected to the broader national focus on the country’s semiquincentennial year in 2026.
