Dan Patrick Wants the State Scripting Prayer in Your School

Faith in Texas has never needed a politician to organize it. Families pray at home. Kids pray on their own. Churches are full on Sunday without a single instruction from the Capitol. So why did Dan Patrick's Senate decide the government should run the schedule?

What the bill does

Meet Senate Bill 11. Its official caption: a bill "relating to a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text in public schools." That's a government-administered religious period, written into law by the state, dropped onto every district. It passed the Senate — Dan Patrick's chamber — and became law, effective September 1, 2025.

When government runs faith, government runs faith

Here's the trap conservatives used to see clearly: the moment you let the state organize religious observance, you've handed the state authority over religious observance. Today it's a period your family might like. Tomorrow it's the same bureaucracy deciding the terms, the text, the rules — and what happens to the kid whose family practices differently, or not at all.

Genuine religious liberty means the government stays out of it — protecting your right to pray without scripting it for you. SB 11 does the opposite. It invites the state in.

Parents, not the Capitol

The conservative instinct is to trust parents over politicians. A family knows how to raise its own kids in its own faith. It does not need Dan Patrick's Senate writing a religious period into the school day to get the job done. This isn't protecting faith — it's putting a government stamp on it, and that stamp can be changed by whoever holds the pen next.

A real alternative is on the ballot

Patrick's seat comes up in 2026. Vikki Goodwin (D, Texas House District 47) believes faith belongs to families and congregations, not to a Lieutenant Governor looking for his next wedge issue. If you want government out of your family's faith, vote like it.