The Texas State Board of Education has approved a required K-12 reading list, the first state to mandate a common core of books for all its 5.5 million schoolchildren statewide. Such selections are usually left to individual teachers, English departments, local school boards, or a mix of all three. 

The Republican-controlled education board recently voted 9-5 to incorporate the reading list into the curriculum beginning in 2030. This gives opponents several more years to raise their concerns that have already surfaced. The central objection centers on the inclusion of one book in particular: the Bible. This book is arguably the second-most-banned book in the United States, topped only by Heather Has Two Mommies.