School officials all over Oklahoma are defying GOP directive to teach the Bible in class

The superintendents of nearly five dozen Oklahoma school districts say they do not plan to change their districts’ curricula to comply with anti-LGBTQ+ Republican State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ mandate that the Bible be taught at the state’s public schools.

In June, Walters issued a memo directing all school districts in the state to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curricula for grades five through 12. The following month, the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) issued guidelines on how schools should incorporate the Bible into lessons beginning in the 2024–2025 school year.

Related:

Oklahoma’s anti-LGBTQ+ education chief told schools to teach the Bible. They’re refusing.

Even the state’s Republican attorney general thinks Walters’ demands are illegal.

In late July, The Oklahoman reported that some of the state’s largest school districts had already said they would not comply with the directive, citing concerns that it may violate state laws. By early August, KGOU reported that at least 17 school districts across the state had said they would not change their curricula to incorporate the Bible.

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The tally has apparently only grown over the past month. On Tuesday, KGOU reported on the findings from a recent survey of every school district in the state by Oklahoma public radio’s StateImpact. Of approximately 540 public school districts and charter schools, 54 superintendents responded, with 46 saying that their districts would not be requiring teachers to incorporate the Bible into their social studies or English and Language Arts curriculum.

“I have talked to my teachers, my board, and many community members,” one respondent wrote. “At best, they are uncomfortable with the mandate. At worst, they feel it is an infringement on personal religious beliefs and is subject to opening Pandora’s box.”

Of the 36 superintendents who said their districts would not be providing a copy of the Bible and the Ten Commandments in every classroom, most cited Oklahoma law which, as KGOU notes, grants school districts discretion over instructional materials. Others cited concerns that spending funds on religious material may violate state law, while some simply said they did not have the funds to purchase Bibles for every classroom.

Meanwhile, of the 46 who said they would not require the Bible to be taught in school, 35 said that they feared retaliation from the OSDE.

Walters has indeed threatened to target schools that refuse to comply with his directive. “You’ve seen some rogue administrators making comments to the press and so I wanted to address those,” Walters said during a July 31 State Board of Education meeting. “Some of our worst acting districts come out and say they are not going to teach history. They said they are not going to teach the Bible because they don’t want that. Just because they are offended by it doesn’t mean they won’t do it. We will enforce the law and they will be held accountable.”

“Oklahoma school districts are required by state law to teach the historical significance of the Bible,” a spokesperson from Walters’ office told The Hill. “Superintendent Walters will hold teachers and administrators accountable.”

In fact, current academic standards approved by the Oklahoma Legislature give schools the option to incorporate the Bible into their lessons but do not require them to do so.

Noting that the state’s academic standards have not changed, StateImpact Oklahoma asked OSDE spokesperson Dan Isett whether schools that defy Walters’ directive would be out of compliance with those standards. Isett did not respond.

Some respondents to StateImpact Oklahoma included blistering critiques of Walters. One wrote that Walters’ mandate “appears to be more of a personal political gimmick.”

“This directive is purely political and has no intentions of improving the education of students in Oklahoma,” another wrote. “It has done what it was intended to do and that was to cause controversy and get interviews on the national stage.”

Walters has indeed gained national media attention over the past year. In January, he was criticized by both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers for appointing Chaya Raichik, the anti-LGBTQ+ hate influencer behind Libs of TikTok, to Oklahoma’s library advisory committee. Following the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict in February, Walters’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies came under intense scrutiny, with many allies and advocates accusing him of fostering the environment of hostility toward LGBTQ+ students that contributed to the trans teen’s tragic death. The Human Rights Campaign and over 350 LGBTQ+ rights organizations, civil rights groups, and leaders sent an open letter to the Oklahoma state legislature demanding Walters be removed from office.

More recently, 21 Oklahoma Republican lawmakers have called for an impeachment investigation into Walters’ handling of the OSED.

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