Oklahoma schools in revolt over Bible mandate

Educators in Oklahoma are refusing a state order to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans, setting up an inevitable showdown with the start of the school year just weeks away.

Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction, last week released guidelines to schools for how they should be integrating the Bible into classrooms, saying educators who are against the initiative “will comply, and I will use every means to make sure of it.”

The message from some schools in the state: Bring it on. 

“I suspect that the first thing that will happen is he will target a specific school district or multiple school districts who he believes are not complying with his directive, those school districts will then have to make a choice as to whether to bend [to] his whim or to sue,” said Rob Miller, superintendent of Bixby Public Schools. 

“And I can tell you that if Bixby was one of those schools that he selected to come after, we would file a lawsuit,” Miller told The Hill.

Walters’s guidance, which follows a June announcement of mandatory biblical curricula for grades five through 12, says that lessons on the Christian text should emphasize its historical context, literary significance and artistic and musical influence. The guidance also says a physical copy of the book should be in every classroom, along with copies of the Ten Commandments, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

“To date, schools have been advised by legal counsel (School Board Association and State Attorney General) to not follow the guidance because it goes against current Oklahoma State Law,” said Lee Northcutt, superintendent of Caddo Public Schools, in an email.

The day the guidance was released, a lawsuit was filed against Walters by Joseph Price, a resident of Mayes County. Price says in the suit he is “a concerned citizen and parent of children attending public schools in Oklahoma,” adding that the order violates the separation of church and state.

In a statement to The Hill, a spokesperson for Walters said, “Oklahoma school districts are required by state law to teach the historical significance of the Bible. Superintendent Walters will hold teachers and administrators accountable. Rogue, left-wing activists who refuse can leave Oklahoma and go to California.”

But The Oklahoman reports that at least a dozen school districts in the state have stated publicly that they do not plan to comply.

“I would tell my teachers to just keep doing what they’re doing, teach the Oklahoma academic standards. Don’t worry about some of the things that are being said at the state department in terms of repercussions or discipline or anything else,” Miller said.  

Schools are skeptical of Walters’s intentions, especially since religious texts were already included in lesson plans without the compulsory measure.  

“Our history teachers have always incorporated religious texts as part of that full study, because it is important to do that, but that’s kind of where the line has to be drawn,” Miller said.  

“In his mandate was that we will put a Bible and a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom in our district, and with no distinction as to whether or not that Bible is used as an instruction resource,” he added. 

Northcutt agreed: “If a teacher wants to use the Bible as a historical reference, then that will be allowed.”

But, he added, “as far as forcing teachers to use the new guidance, we will not do so until we are legally told to do so.”

The office of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) did not respond to a request for comment.

Schools have become the leading front in the fight over the separation of church and state. In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the approval of what would have been the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, saying it “violates state and federal law and is unconstitutional.”

And the Sooner State is not alone is pushing biblical teaching in classrooms. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) earlier this summer signed a law mandating posters of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, though that measure is on hold as it faces legal challenges.

Miller said if Walters decides to move against Bixby Public Schools, he would “probably hit our accreditation or something of that nature, and then that would go to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, where I am confident they would again support the rights of local school districts to make that choice.” 

But ultimately, Miller said the goal may be to garner headlines and get the mandate before the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.  

“I believe that what the state superintendent intends, because he has voiced this out loud, is that he would like to be sued, because he would like to see this issue move through the court system to the United States Supreme Court, where I think there’s a faction of people who believe that the current composition of the U.S. Supreme Court might be favorable towards this type of policy,” he said.