More than 160 faith leaders representing nearly 60 school districts across Texas delivered a unified message to public school boards this week: reject a controversial state law requiring districts to vote on government-organized prayer and religious study during the school day. The religious leaders, spanning Christian, Jewish, and other faith traditions, argue that Senate Bill 11 threatens religious freedom by transferring sacred responsibilities from families and houses of worship to government control.
Coalition Challenges “Solution in Search of a Problem”
The open letter, sent to school board members on January 8, 2026, represents a coordinated effort by ten religious organizations, including the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Christians Against Christian Nationalism, National Council of Jewish Women Dallas, Texas Freedom Network, and several Jewish federations and temples.
“We believe in the value of religious instruction,” the letter states. “We also understand that the responsibility for religious instruction lies with students, their families, and their local faith communities ,not with public schools, and not organized or directed by the state,” according to Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Rabbi David Segal, Policy Counsel at Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, dismissed the law as “a solution in search of a problem,” noting that students already possess the constitutional right to pray voluntarily. “This law creates a bureaucratic circus for overstretched teachers and administrators, forcing them to track waivers and referee religious disputes instead of focusing on education,” Segal told the Baptist Joint Committee.
SB 11, What the Law Requires
Senate Bill 11, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in June 2025, mandates that all Texas school district boards of trustees take a recorded vote within six months on whether to adopt policies creating daily periods for prayer or reading religious texts. The law, authored by Galveston Republican Senator Mayes Middleton, went into effect at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
Under the legislation, students would require parental consent to participate, and prayer cannot substitute for instructional time or be broadcast over loudspeakers. The law also directs Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office to provide legal defense for districts that implement prayer policies.
In September 2025, Paxton enthusiastically endorsed the law, stating: “In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” according to the Texas Tribune. He specifically recommended students recite the Lord’s Prayer.
Religious Leaders Warn of Division and Exclusion
Faith leaders emphasized that the law creates religious segregation within schools rather than fostering unity. “Our children thrive when schools bring students together, not separate them by faith,” said Fariha Samad, Reproductive Freedom Congregation Organizer for Texas Freedom Network. “SB 11 pressures students to participate in religious exercises to avoid being singled out, burdens administrators with impossible choices, and drains taxpayer dollars through preventable lawsuits,” Samad stated in the Baptist Joint Committee release.
Blake Ziegler, Texas Field Organizer at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, invoked historical context: “Many of our Jewish ancestors sought refuge in the United States because of its separation between religion and government. We fled nations whose theocratic policies persecuted our people and others who did not share the state’s religion,” Ziegler said, according to the Baptist Joint Committee.
Rabbi Kim Herzog Cohen of Temple Emanu-El warned that “SB 11 harms student and teacher cohesion by potentially segregating children based on their religion, creating an environment of exclusion for children who do not participate in the prayer period,” as reported by the Baptist Joint Committee.
Alternative Resolution Proposed
Rather than implementing state-organized prayer, faith leaders are urging school boards to pass alternative resolutions that affirm existing constitutional protections for voluntary student prayer while explicitly rejecting government-organized religious activities. This approach, they argue, preserves religious liberty without creating bureaucratic burdens or legal liabilities for already stretched educational systems.
Elaine Stillman, president of the National Council of Jewish Women Dallas, framed the issue as both a religious freedom concern and a practical burden: “Faith should be a personal choice, not a government mandate, and schools should be focused on supporting students — not policing belief,” Stillman stated in the Baptist Joint Committee announcement.
As Texas school boards face imminent deadlines to vote on SB 11 implementation, the coalition’s intervention represents a significant faith-based challenge to state Republican leaders’ push for increased Christian expression in public education—a movement that also includes a separate law requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms, currently blocked by courts in several major metro areas.