A Texas bill that would require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments is one step closer to reaching Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) desk after it passed a vote on Sunday.
The Texas House passed Senate Bill 10 in a vote of 82-46, clarifying that any legal fees incurred by the display of the Ten Commandments would be the responsibility of the state. Due to this amendment, the bill now heads back to the Senate, which previously passed the bill in a vote of 20-11.
If the bill is signed into law, it would go into effect on Sept. 1, right around the time the 2025-26 school year is underway in Texas.
Abbott is expected to sign the bill, as he previously expressed enthusiasm for the idea of putting the biblical text on display in schools. In January, the governor posted an article on X revealing that a state lawmaker was reviving a bill to put the Ten Commandments back into public schools, saying, “Let’s do it.”
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Last year, Louisiana became the first state to require the biblical text to be displayed in classrooms after Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) signed the legislation into law. However, a federal judge ordered state education officials in November not to move forward with enforcing it, calling it “unconstitutional on its face.”
In Oklahoma, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters directed all school districts to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum for grades 5 through 12 last year. Walters told the Washington Examiner that there is “a critical need to study the Bible and the Ten Commandments,” adding that “Western civilization has used the Bible as a source document.”
