Texas panel approves mandatory Bible stories for public schools

A Texas education panel has approved plans to make Bible stories mandatory for all five million public school students in the state, sparking a row about separation of church and state.

The required readings, which don't come into effect until 2030, include Bible passages about Adam and Eve and from the book of Exodus, where God speaks to Moses through a burning bush.

Critics say the new reading requirements, which include Dickens and Shakespeare, infringe on religious freedoms and lack diversity.

The Republican-controlled State Board of Education approved the measure in a 9-5 vote with one Republican joining Democrats to vote against it.

"We are bringing the Bible back into schools this week for the first time in 60 years," Brandon Hall, a Republican member of the board of education, said this week.

Supporters say schoolchildren ought to learn about Judeo-Christian traditions that they argue were essential to the nation's founding.

The new list establishes for the first time books that students across Texas must read.

It includes English literature classics such as Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr's I've Been to the Mountain Top speech and Margaret Thatcher's eulogy for President Ronald Reagan are also on the wider-ranging list.

But it is the mandatory religious texts that have drawn fiercest opposition from education and civil liberties groups.

Students will learn passages about Jesus in the New Testament and read the Parable of the Prodigal Son, under the curriculum.

Felicia Martin, executive director Texas Freedom Network, a left-wing activist group, said ahead of the vote that the reading list "centres Christianity above all other religious faiths and traditions".

"[It has] a very Western-centric view of the world that omits the contributions and the histories of black, brown, indigenous people, of other religious faiths and traditions that are critical to the overall understanding of our history."

Others also raised concerns that the mandate risks undermining the independence of teachers to steer their classes.

"Texas teachers have expressed concerns about the length of the list and the potential loss of teacher autonomy in determining which works are appropriate and relevant for their own classrooms," Clare Haefner of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association told the BBC.

Even though the board's final approval reduced the required list, the association says it remains too cumbersome.

The BBC contacted the Texas State Board of Education for comment.

Friday's approval was the latest example of moves by conservatives to bolster the presence of Christian beliefs in the Texas education system.

Last year, it became the largest US state to require classrooms to display the Ten Commandments - a set of biblical laws some Christians believe God mandated for humans.

In April, a federal appeals court upheld the law mandating the display after a legal challenge.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump took credit for the conservative religious gains in schools.

"Religion is back in our country, bigger and stronger than it has been in many, many years," Trump said at a religious freedom event in Washington DC.

"At my direction, the Department of Education issued new guidance protecting the right to prayer in public schools."