Texas Schools Are Now Required to Display the 10 Commandments – Should They Be?

By Alex Buscemi, Editorial Manager at Builders

As of this school year, Texas law SB 10 requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.

But unlike the Commandments, it seems the law isn’t set in stone: civil rights organizations have already signaled their intent to appeal, and the case is expected to reach the Supreme Court in late 2026 or early 2027. 

Is it a harmless nod to America's heritage, or the government putting a religious thumb on a captive audience of kids? And as student test scores continue to suffer, does the debate deserve so much attention and taxpayer money?  

What the right says

Supporters see the Ten Commandments as a foundational thread in America's legal and moral history, and the display as a passive nod to that heritage, not a sermon. The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Candy Noble, made the case in plainly moral terms: "Nothing is more deep-rooted in the fabric of our American tradition of education than the Ten Commandments," she said, ticking off the principles she sees in them: "Respect authority. Respect others. Don't steal. Tell the truth. Don't kill. Keep your word." 

Supporters also lean on the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022), where the Supreme Court ruled that a public high school coach’s quiet, post-game personal prayer on the football field is protected by the First Amendment. They argue SB 10 is a similar expression of religion in public life, pointing out that no student is required to read, recite, or believe anything — the poster just hangs there.

What the left says

Opponents say the government has no business hanging one religion's sacred text on the wall of a room where kids are legally required to sit, adding that the First Amendment bars the government from making any law respecting an establishment of religion. 

The plaintiffs include rabbis and Christian clergy, who argue that the law mandates one specific (Protestant) wording, which means the state effectively picked a side in a theological dispute that Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions have never agreed on. As one advocacy group put it, "Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools," warning that "the government should not be taking sides in this theological debate." They also cite Stone v. Graham (1980), in which the Supreme Court struck down a nearly identical Kentucky law.

The rhetoric turned ugly fast

When discussing the issue, the tone from both the left and right has curdled. 

On one side, a widely shared conservative essay framed the law's opponents not as fellow citizens with a constitutional concern, but as enemies of morality itself, claiming "the progressive left's agenda increasingly stands in direct opposition to the ethical core of the Ten Commandments," and casting the whole debate as a war against "the moral framework that has undergirded Western civilization for centuries."

On the other side, the Center for American Progress opened its argument by branding the law's supporters “far right-wing extremists” pushing a "misguided" agenda, before getting to any of its actual legal points.

Some politicians model the same posture. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed he "will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country," casting anyone who disagrees as an enemy of American virtue itself. 

Notice what none of that is: an actual reckoning with the other side's strongest point. And as the culture war rages on, citizens pay the price. The law requires the Attorney General to defend every district sued for complying, meaning taxpayers are on the hook for the legal bills. That fight now spans multiple lawsuits, a federal appeals court, and a probable trip to the Supreme Court, which will likely cost taxpayers millions. 

The problems in our schools that get overlooked

Symbolic fights like this are politically convenient, and both the left and the right are more eager to wage them than to address the more complex problems that Texas school systems face. 

For politicians on the right, mandating the Ten Commandments is a high-visibility way to signal to the base that they're defending faith and tradition. For politicians and activists on the left, it is a way to signal they're defending the separation of church and state and fighting back against conservatives’ excesses. 

But while the state argues over what hangs on the wall, look at what's happening in front of it. A 2026 study from the Texas Education Agency found that a quarter to a third of students in grades 3-8 failed to even approach grade-level expectations in reading and math.

These are the numbers that determine whether a kid can balance a budget, fill out a job application, or make sense of the very commandments everyone's arguing about. 

We're not short on ideas that work. We're short on the attention and will to fund them. A few interventions with real evidence behind them include small-group tutoring several times per week, phonics-based reading instruction, and early literacy intervention.

All of these would benefit our children more than the Ten Commandments culture war devouring our politicians’ attention (and our taxpayer dollars) instead. 

What actually shapes a child?

How does a child actually grow into an honest, decent person?

Because that's the ultimate goal of the poster: to pass good values to the next generation. It's a noble goal. Most parents share it, whatever their faith or politics.

But children learn honesty, decency, and how to treat people the same way they always have: by watching the adults around them. 

So what are those kids actually watching us do right now?

They're watching one side call the other "far right-wing extremists" and the other side call the first "enemies of Western civilization." They're watching us treat disagreement as warfare and reach for the cruelest available version of each other, all while claiming to care about the children's moral development.

Imagine the example we'd set if we poured this much passion into getting them to read at grade level. If the people who disagree about the commandments could disagree the way we'd want a child to: with honesty, without contempt, without pretending the other person is a monster.

Kids become who they become by watching us. Let's give them something worth copying.

Alex Buscemi can be reached at abuscemi@buildersmovement.org