The Republican majority in the Texas legislature, funded by white Christian nationalists, persists in trying to turn the state’s public schools into Christian indoctrination centers. They have passed laws to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom, to teach lessons from the Bible as part of literacy instruction, and to demolish any line between church and state.
Meanwhile the 5.5 million children in the public schools of Texas come from every imaginable religion, as well as none at all. Public school is not the place to teach religion. That’s the job of parents and religious institutions.
A diverse coalition of faith leaders and defenders of civil liberty joined to support separation of church and state.
March 10, 2026, Austin, TX – A statewide coalition of diverse organizations and Texans across the state successfully empowered Texas families to defend the religious freedom of millions of Texas public school students from Senate Bill 11, the state-organized prayer in school law. Passed in the 2025 legislative session, S.B. 11 required school districts to vote on whether to adopt periods of state-organized prayer and religious study during the school day. The deadline to vote was March 1.
The coalition, comprising both religious and secular voices, empowered community leaders and school boards to reaffirm the value of religious diversity and the essential separation of religion and government in our democracy. Parents, students, teachers, clergy, and more spoke up in districts across the state. As the Texas Tribune reports, nearly all of Texas’s 1,200 school districts rejected S.B. 11. This includes many who adopted a coalition-supported alternative resolution emphasizing religious freedoms already present in public schools. As a result, millions of students in Texas are protected from coercive, divisive, and overbroad state-sponsored expressions of religion in schools.
This effort was organized in partnership between RAC-TX, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC), Christians Against Christian Nationalism, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, American Federation of Teachers-Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), National Council of Jewish Women Dallas, Texas Freedom Network, Texas Impact, Pastors for Texas Children, Faith Commons, and Freedom From Religion Foundation.
“S.B. 11 is part of an ongoing effort to undermine public institutions, especially our schools, in favor of Christian nationalist policies that govern based on a distorted version of one religion’s teachings,” said RAC Texas Field Organizer Blake Ziegler (he/him). “Reform Jews in Texas proudly stood alongside our interfaith and secular friends against this violation of religious freedom. S.B. 11 would hurt our Jewish students, excluding them from their peers instead of promoting the religious pluralism essential to our democracy.”
“The people of Texas aren’t buying what SB11 was selling,” said Rabbi David Segal, Policy Counsel at Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC). “This massive rejection of state-organized prayer proves that Texans value the separation of church and state. Student led prayer is already allowed in our public schools, it just shouldn’t be a government-run program. We are proud to see districts across the state stand up for the religious freedom of every student, regardless of their faith tradition.”
“This is what democracy looks like,” said Carisa Lopez, deputy executive director of the Texas Freedom Network. “Across Texas, people of every faith – and no faith – came together to protect our shared right to practice religion freely, without the government telling our children when, how, and what to believe. SB 11 handed the state the power to organize prayer in public schools and put teachers in the impossible position of refereeing religious participation. Worst of all, it asked families to sign away their constitutional rights just to opt out. We are grateful to every school board member, parent, and coalition partner who showed up to protect our public school students and their religious freedom. Together we’ll continue fighting for the Texas we all deserve.”
From Texas Impact: “Texas Impact has always fought for religious freedom, and in the case of Senate Bill 11, that meant preventing Christianity from being pushed into public schools. Every student in Texas has the right to pray on their own time in any public school. Senate Bill 11 attempts to overstep by inserting prayer into our schools, per the advice of our Attorney General Paxton. We should let Texan families and faith communities lead religious education, not our elected officials.”
“Texas public schools serve all children from every conceivable faith tradition, and no faith tradition. They are public institutions that must not favor, advance, or establish any religion. Religion is for the congregation, home, and individual. When it becomes a tool of the state, both get corrupted. Every single time,” said Rev. Charles Foster Johnson, Executive Director at Pastors for Texas Children.
“School districts across the state overwhelmingly rejected S.B. 11 because inviting state-organized prayer into public schools would cause division, pressure students to conform, and distract schools from their core educational mission,” said Caro Achar (she/her), engagement coordinator for free speech and pluralism at the ACLU of Texas. “Texas students already have robust rights to pray and read religious texts on their own during the school day. This law didn’t address a real problem. Instead, it threatened to create new problems by blurring the line between church and state – putting students’ and families’ constitutional rights at risk.”
“SB 11 is just another in a long line of culture war bills meant to drive a wedge between us to keep people distracted from the bigger picture,” said Texas AFT President Zeph Capo. “School districts are just affirming what we know to be true: our students already enjoy religious freedom and SB 11’s prayer period imposes a specific agenda that would alienate students and educators alike. The brave organizers and students on the ground that advocated against SB 11 at school boards across the state deserve special recognition and Texas AFT is in this fight with them.”
“The resistance to implementing S.B. 11’s state-organized prayer periods in Texas public schools should send a message to state legislators that Texans don’t support the Christian Nationalist agenda of imposing one set of religious views on all public school children,” said Rachel Laser (she/her), president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Our Constitution’s promise of church-state separation means that students and their families – not politicians – get to decide if, when and how public school children engage with religion.”
“SB 11 is a transparent attempt to erode the constitutional separation between church and state by promoting religious activity in public schools,” said Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor (she/her). “Our classrooms must remain secular spaces that respect students of all beliefs and none.”
“I want my granddaughter to be able to go to school and be herself. I want her to not feel left out, or ‘othered,’ when she doesn’t participate in a state-organized prayer time, ” said Robyn C., NCJW Dallas Advocacy Committee member. “I want every child to feel included, regardless of their faith or lack thereof.”
“Students across Texas showed up to speak for themselves and their classmates. In places like El Paso, Bastrop, Katy, and many others, we saw students testify and share how important it is that public schools remain welcoming to people of every faith and those not observing a particular religion. The decisions by these districts to reject state-organized prayer periods reaffirm that religious freedom means everyone has a seat at the table. Our schools should be spaces where diversity is respected and no student feels pressured to participate in someone else’s religious practice,” said SEAT Senior Policy Associate Azeemah Sadiq, a high school student in Alief ISD.
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About the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
For more than six decades, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) has worked to educate, inspire, and mobilize the Reform Jewish community to advocate for social justice. We mobilize around federal, state, provincial, and local legislation on more than 70 pressing socioeconomic issues, including gun violence prevention, immigration, reproductive rights, and criminal justice reform.
As a joint instrumentality of the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, we represent the values of the largest and most diverse Jewish Movement in North America to governments at all levels.
About Baptist Joint Committee (BJC) & Christians Against Christian Nationalism
BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty) is an 90-year-old religiously based organization working to defend faith freedom for all and protect the institutional separation of church and state in the historic Baptist tradition. BJC is the home of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign.
About Texas Freedom Network
The Texas Freedom Network is a grassroots organization of religious and community leaders and young Texans building an informed and effective movement for equality and social justice.
About Texas Impact
Texas Impact equips faith leaders and their congregations with the information, opportunities, and outreach tools to educate their communities and engage with lawmakers on pressing public policy issues. They help people live out their faith in the public square, moving the faith community from charity to justice.
About Pastors for Texas Children
Pastors For Texas Children mobilizes the faith community for public education support and advocacy.
About the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas
The ACLU of Texas works with communities, at the State Capitol, and in the courts to protect and advance civil rights and civil liberties for every Texan, no exceptions. Established in 1938, the ACLU of Texas is an independent affiliate of the national ACLU.
About American Federation of Teachers-Texas
Texas AFT is a statewide union with 66,000 members, including K-12 educators and support staff, community college and university faculty, and retirees. We believe that education is the path to a just and democratic society. We also believe the only way to give students a quality education is through the dedicated work of empowered public educators.
About Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a religious freedom advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, AU educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
Faith Commons
Faith Commons mission is to lift up faith voices in the public square for the common good. They do that by cultivating unexpected relationships through educational programs that inspire more people to participate in public life with mutual respect, hospitality, and generosity.
About the Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism.
About National Council of Jewish Women Dallas
National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) Dallas is a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action. Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children, and families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms.
About Students Engaged in Advancing Texas
SEAT is a movement of young people developing transferable skills and demonstrating youth visibility in policymaking. Advocating for a seat at the table, SEAT is normalizing the presence of students in educational policymaking - nothing about us, without us.
Media Contact
Steve Feldman
Director of Strategic Communications
Additional Media Contacts
Karlee Marshall
BJC & Christians Against Christian Nationalism
kmarshall@bjconline.org
(580) 224-1817
Imelda Mejia
Texas Freedom Network
media@tfn.org
Bee Moorhead
Texas Impact
bee@texasimpact.org
Rev. Charles Foster Johnson
Pastors for Texas Children
johnson.cfj@gmail.com
(210) 379-1066
Kristi Gross
ACLU of Texas
media@aclutx.org
Marco Guajardo
American Federations of Teachers-Texas
mguajardo@texasaft.org
Moisés Serrano
Americans United
media@au.org
Amit Pal
Freedom From Religion Foundation
apal@ffrf.org
Shannon Morse
National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) Dallas
execdirector@ncjwdallas.org
Cameron Samuels
Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT)
press@studentsengaged.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The paradox of the unification of church and state is that it has discredited both in history
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Texas adopted a religious infused public school curriculum called Bluebonnet which is now being implemented in many public schools. Some parents have complained about the Biblical themed lessons, which often contain misinformation, or information that parents may find unacceptable. The state is now in the process of trying to do damage control for allowing material designed to indoctrinate students into right wing Christianity in public schools. Religion should be a personal issue, and it should not be part of a public school curriculum that is paid for with public dollars.
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WHOSE TEN COMMANDMENTS? WHOSE BIBLE?
The Catholic Ten Commandments and the Protestant Ten Commandments are different. Whose version will be posted in schools and public places. The Protestant and Catholic Bibles are different. Whose version will be used in schools and public events?
Will there be a long battle in the courts to determine whose version of the Ten Commandments is posted in schools and other public places, because if the Protestant-only version is posted and/or taught in schools, Catholic children in public schools and Catholics could be made targets of taunting and derision.
The official Catholic Ten Commandments are found on pages 496 and 497 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Compared commandment-by-commandment, the Protestant and Catholic Ten Commandments are nearly identical; the most significant difference is with the Second Commandment:
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT DIFFERENCES:
Protestant Version: “You shall not make unto you any graven images.”
Catholic Version: “You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.”
The Catholic Church holds that since the First Commandment says “You shall have no other gods but me,” there is no reason to repeat that in the Second Commandment.
The Second Commandment is the point of the only significant difference between the Protestant and the Catholic Ten Commandments — and that difference has triggered bloody warfare between Catholics and Protestants for centuries.
But here’s how the conflict arises: The Hebrew word translated as “graven images” in the Old Testament is “pesel”.
There is also another Hebrew word for “graven images”; it is “matzevah”.
In the Old Testament Ten Commandments, the word “pesel” is used in the Second Commandment and translated into English as “graven images”; but “pesel” refers to statues that are specifically carved as idols to be worshipped, not the kind of statues found in Catholic churches.
The Hebrew word “matzevah” refers to statues that are carved as memorials for holy people and loved ones and are not worshipped. The statues in Catholic churches are “matzevah” — statues that commemorate Mary and the saints, not statues that are worshipped.
So, the actual word in the original Hebrew Second Commandment in the Old Testament refers ONLY TO STATUES THAT ARE CARVED SPECIFICALLY AS IDOLS to be worshipped and DOES NOT refer to statues carved to commemorate loved ones and Christian role models.
Catholics don’t pray to the statues of Mary and the saints as people pray to God.
Catholics ask Mary and the saints to pray to God for them, just as Christians of all denominations ask loved ones to pray to God for them. For example, in the “Hail, Mary” prayer, Catholics say: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, PRAY FOR US now and at the hour of our death.” Catholics are asking Mary to pray for them to God, and it is God Who will do the rest.
Over the centuries of conflict, and even today, Protestants have accused Catholics of worshipping statues of Mary and the saints, and Protestants have not only viewed Catholics as idolaters, but have made war on Catholics for that mistaken reason.
The long and bloody Hundred Years War that ravaged all of Europe was largely because Protestants accused Catholics of being idol worshippers. Will America experience such religious warfare over whose version of the Ten Commandments is posted and discussed in public schools?
Catholics have tried again and again to point out the true meaning of the word “pesel” in the Old Testament Ten Commandments and to explain that the memorial statues (“matzevah”) in Catholic churches are simply memorial statues, not idols.
But Protestants have never acknowledged the true meaning of “pesel” in the Old Testament Ten Commandments and have stuck with their own English translations that hide the true meaning of the word.
So, what will happen in public schools if only the Protestant Ten Commandments are posted in the classrooms and Protestant children begin accusing Catholic children of not honoring the Protestant Second Commandment and of being idol worshippers?
There will be conflict in the classrooms, in the school yards, between neighbors and co-workers, and there will be long and costly court battles. If it comes to that, the U.S. Supreme Court, knowing the true meaning of the word “pesel” in the Protestant Ten Commandments, will rule in favor of the Catholic plaintiffs, setting off protests from Protestants and further dividing American versus American.
And there won’t just be conflicts between Protestant and Catholic children in the schools because there are public school children of other religions which don’t use the same Ten Commandments that either Protestants or Catholics use.
AS WE PREPARE TO CELEBRATE THE 250th ANNIVERSARY OF OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, it is well to remember that the man who wrote our Declaration — Thomas Jefferson — was, like many of our Founding Fathers a Deist, not a Christian.
Jefferson also wrote “The Jefferson Bible” which removed all references to Jesus as being God. The Jefferson Bible became very popular and for decades a copy was given to each newly-elected member of Congress.
Benjamin Franklin was a Deist.
George Washington, whom we honor with the title “Father of Our Country”, was a Deist.
These men and many other Founding Fathers are listed on the historical membership rolls of Anglican churches because they were FORCED TO JOIN the official government Anglican Church, because if they didn’t, they would have no right to vote and their properties would be highly taxed. Most colonists hated being forced to enroll, as well. They wanted free choice of religion or of no religion at all.
OUR FOUNDING FATHERS HATED having been forced to join a Christian church, so when it came time for them to write our Constitution, they wrote The Establishment Clause into the First Amendment which says that Congress cannot make any law that recognizes any established religion and that Americans can practice any religion they want, or no religion at all. Freedom.
OUR FOUNDING FATHERS also wrote in Article VI, Clause 3, of our Constitution that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the United States” because they wanted to forbid that candidates for public office would have to belong to one religion or another or to any religion at all.
In order to make any Christian religion — there are 6,000 different Christian denominations — the official religion of America it would require passage of a constitutional amendment, and that won’t happen because passage of a constitutional amendment requires that 75% of all the states agree to it, and 75% of the states today will never agree to such an amendment.
So, enjoy your constitutional freedom to practice your choice of religion or to not practice any religion at all. Revolutionary War heroes died for your freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
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Thank you, Diane, for amplifying our work to fight all this nonsense. Greg Abbott and his Christian Nationalist minions use all this awful, unnecessary legislation to distract us from their egregious– and unconstitutional– defunding and demoralizing of public schools.
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Thank you, Diane, for your stalwart defense of religious liberty for all people!
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