Oklahoma educators push back on state rule forcing Bible into lesson plans

Several school districts say they will not – as of now – amend curricula following superintendent’s order

As a new school year looms in Oklahoma, some educators in the state are pushing back against a new state order to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans.

In late June, Oklahoma’s Republican state education superintendent, Ryan Walters, ordered public schools in the state to immediately incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curricula, following the passage that month of a law in Louisiana with a similar mandate – and which was quickly challenged on constitutional grounds.

Walters appeared at a state education board meeting and called the Bible “one of the most foundational documents used for the constitution and the birth of our country”, though the US’s founders explicitly called for a substantial separation between church and state. And he said that the Bible was a “necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system”.

Walters’ policy and remarks not only reignited the conversation about keeping state and church affairs separate. They also drew criticism from civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers who argued that the order violated federal rights to freely exercise one’s religious faith as well as a constitutional prohibition against the establishment of a state religion.