A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding sections numbered 22.1-202.2 and 23.1-401.4, relating to public elementary and secondary schools and public institutions of higher education; display of Ten Commandments in each classroom required.
HB1146 would require every classroom in Virginia public elementary and secondary schools, as well as every classroom on the campuses of public institutions of higher education, to display the Ten Commandments. The required display must be on a poster or framed document at least 11 by 14 inches and must include the full text of the Ten Commandments in a large, readable font. The bill also requires a historical context statement describing the role of the Ten Commandments in American public education, citing materials such as the New England Primer, McGuffey Readers, and Noah Webster’s textbooks.
The bill specifies that school boards and public colleges are not required to spend their own funds to buy the displays. Instead, they must accept donated funds or donated displays in order to comply. The measure would add new sections to both the K-12 education code and the higher education code, creating a statewide classroom-display mandate for public education institutions.
If enacted, HB1146 would amend the Code of Virginia by adding new provisions to Title 22.1 and Title 23.1 requiring religious text displays in all public-school and public-college classrooms. It would impose a new operational obligation on local school boards and public institutions of higher education, while limiting direct fiscal impact by prohibiting the use of required public funds for purchasing the displays. The bill would affect students, teachers, school divisions, and public colleges and universities, and would likely raise constitutional and policy questions about religion in public education.
No committee votes or hearing transcripts are provided, so there is no recorded debate to gauge support or opposition. Based on the bill’s content and its referral to the Education Committee with no further action shown, the measure appears to have been introduced as a strongly pro-display, religiously oriented proposal but did not advance in the available record. The absence of votes suggests it remained at an early stage and may not have received broad legislative traction.
The main point of contention is the requirement that public classrooms display explicitly religious text, which could be viewed by opponents as government endorsement of religion or as inconsistent with separation-of-church-and-state principles. Supporters would likely frame the bill as a historical or moral education measure, reinforced by the included context statement about the Ten Commandments in early American schooling. Another point of debate is the mandate’s scope: it applies not only to K-12 classrooms but also to public higher education classrooms, expanding the reach of the requirement across the state education system.