Texas education board moves forward with first mandatory K-12 reading list

How we got here

House Bill 1605, a state law passed in 2023, directs education officials to create a list of literary works for kindergarten through twelfth grade. SBOE members said they wanted to pare down the TEA’s list, which included nearly 300 English readings and parallel Spanish texts, to avoid using up too much instructional time.

“The overwhelming majority of feedback I've heard is that the TEA list is too long, covering up to 70-80% of class time,” board member Will Hickman, R-Houston, said April 7. “During language arts class, a teacher may have testing, spelling and grammar lessons, as well as local student [literary] selections.”

While Ellis’ proposal cuts the number of required readings by roughly one-third, it far exceeds a state requirement that “at least one literary work” be taught in each grade level.

SBOE member Evelyn Brooks, R-Frisco, proposed requiring just one work per grade level, from “The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule” in kindergarten to William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in 12th-grade English. Her motion was voted down 6-8, and Brooks later voted in favor of Ellis’ proposal.

“We, as far as I know, will be the only state in this country that has a list such as this. There are many other states who have recommended reading lists, but to my knowledge, there's not one that will have a required reading list as robust as this that will be common for every student across the state,” Ellis said April 9.

The debate

Roughly 100 people testified during a public hearing on the reading list earlier in the week, with a majority of speakers expressing concerns that the list was too long, lacked diverse viewpoints and emphasized Christianity over other religions. Proponents of the list, including the board’s Republican members, said students should read biblical texts that influenced the nation’s founding and prioritize classical literature over contemporary works.

“The volume of literary works per grade alone seems to monopolize much of a teacher's time, denying them the opportunity to choose literary works that align with their students’ interests,” Quinn McCall, a legislative liaison for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, said April 7.

McCall and other testifiers also questioned whether schools would be able to afford purchasing hundreds of new books required by the list, noting that students are frequently given individual copies of novels in middle and high school.

Dallas pastor Mara Bim said she felt that state leaders were “trying to lift up Christianity in the public school system,” which some Republican board members pushed back on.

Member Julie Pickren, R-Pearland, pointed to Texas’ Good Samaritan Law, which generally shields individuals from legal repercussions for potential harm caused while helping someone in an emergency.

“We're not teaching a religion in public schools—we're using the Old Testament, the New Testament, according to state law, for the enrichment of knowledge,” Pickren said. “[Students] need an enrichment of knowledge, and they need to read the source text of where that comes from.”

David Segal, a Houston rabbi, told the board he agreed that biblical texts have “literary value” but was concerned that some passages were not appropriate for young students to read in a public school classroom, where teachers are not trained to teach about religion.

Texans also told the board that some students would not feel represented in the required readings, which they said lacked sufficient perspectives from women and authors of color.

“The lack of Hispanic authors on either list is a major problem in a state with a majority Hispanic student population,” Robert Norris, founder of the advocacy group Grandparents for Public Schools, said April 7. “It's crucial that the curriculum reflects and validates the experiences of these students, including works by Hispanic authors focusing on Hispanic culture, would make the curriculum more relevant and relatable to students.”

During the 2024-25 school year, about 54% of Texas public school students were Hispanic, 24% were white and 13% were Black, according to TEA data.