The Texas Senate continues to pass bills identified as legislative priorities by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, with the most recent focusing on religious freedom.
The Senate passed a bipartisan bill Tuesday to put prayer back in public schools. SB 11, filed by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, passed by a vote of 23-7. It heads to the Texas House.
The bill would allow teachers and students, with parental consent, to opt into a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts during school hours.
“Our schools are not God-free zones,” Middleton said. “We are a state and nation built on ‘In God We Trust.’ You have to ask: are our schools better or worse off since prayer was taken out in the 1960s? Litigious atheists are no longer going to get to decide for everyone else if students and educators exercise their religious liberties during school hours.”
Middleton thanked President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick “for making prayer in public schools a top priority,” arguing, “There is no such thing as ‘separation of church and state’ in our Constitution, and recent Supreme Court decisions by President Trump’s appointees reaffirmed this. The goal of this bill is to promote freedom of religion for teachers and students in the place where they spend most of their time – school.”
The Senate is also poised to pass SB 10, filed by state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, which would require every public-school classroom to post a copy of the Ten Commandments beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. The first two readings passed, the third was scheduled for Wednesday. If it passes, as it’s expected to do, it will head to the Texas House.
