Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters threatened to revoke the teaching license of any Oklahoman educators who decline to teach their kids about the Bible.
In a memo released on Thursday, Walters directed all Oklahoman schools to inform fifth- through twelfth-graders on the importance of the Bible in the lives of the country’s founding fathers and other notable Americans. Additionally, all schools must provide a Bible in each classroom.
According to Walters, educators who choose not to teach about the Bible would suffer the same fate as those who choose not to teach about the American Civil War.
He stated that the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which Walters leads, must vote to revoke their teaching license as part of the punishment.
“Any teacher that would knowingly, willfully disobey the law and disobey our standards — there are repercussions for that,” Walters stated. “So we deal with that on a case-by-case basis, but yes, teachers have to teach Oklahoma Academic Standards and this is absolutely going to be part of them.”
Religious and civil liberties organizations swiftly denounced Walters’ new regulation involving Bible instruction. Walters is unsuitably endorsing Christianity in schools, according to statements from the Oklahoma branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Jewish Federation of Tulsa.
Another voice was that of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The group claimed in an email that Walters is “abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children” and that it is “carefully assessing options.”
According to Walters, the education department had been working on guidelines for utilizing the Bible in the classroom for nine months. Because the Bible “is the book that’s under assault,” the organization concentrated on it, he said.
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In an email, a representative for the Oklahoma attorney general’s office stated that instructors were already permitted by law to use Bibles during class, and that “there is no legal authority for a memo from the Superintendent to require content.”
Because of the judges that former President Donald Trump nominated to the Supreme Court, Walters expressed confidence that his order will withstand legal challenges.
Regarding Trump, Walters remarked, “He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states.” In November, he said, “it will help us move the ball forward, even more so than this,” if Trump is elected to a second term.
