(The Center Square) – Louisiana education officials are moving to require every public school student to read at least one state-approved work of classic literature each year, with $2 million already set aside to help support the effort.
The requirement comes through a proposed rule from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that would direct students in kindergarten through eighth grade, as well as high school students, to read at least one full-length work each year from a Louisiana Department of Education “required classic literature list.”
The Department of Education has already published a separate list of recommended “Great Books” as part of Louisiana’s revised English language arts standards.
That list includes works such as “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “1984,” “Frankenstein,” “Crime and Punishment” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
The mandate would begin in the 2027-28 school year. The department is currently developing the list, though it is unclear when it will be released or which books will be included.
Lawmakers appropriated $2 million in the department’s budget this year for “classroom library support.” A fiscal statement accompanying BESE’s proposed rule says that funding will help support the new literature requirement.
Those books, however, are currently presented as examples educators may use. It remains unclear whether the existing Great Books list will form the basis of the new “required classic literature list” referenced in the proposed BESE rule.
The regulation itself does not identify specific titles, leaving the Department of Education to determine which works qualify.
It is also unclear whether students would be allowed to choose from a broad statewide list, whether certain books would be assigned by grade level or how often the department could revise the list.
Because the titles would not be written directly into BESE regulations, the department could have significant discretion over which works qualify as required classic literature and how the list changes over time.
BESE’s proposal must still proceed through the state’s administrative rulemaking process before becoming final.
