Four days before the Nov. 5 election, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Republican Leslie Recine to temporarily fill the State Board of Education’s District 13 seat. Weeks later, the board moved one step closer to approving a new state curriculum heavily infused with biblical teachings.

The state-created and optional curriculum comes as many states are pushing biblical education in public schools

Public schools in Texas now have the option to use a new, state-written curriculum infused with Bible stories after the state’s school board voted in favor of the material on Friday. A slim majority of the board’s 15 members – eight to seven – voted to keep the Bluebonnet Learning material on a list of K-5 reading and English language arts materials for potential use in the 2025-26 school year.