Oklahoma’s top education official orders schools to teach the Bible

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters on Thursday said he was ordering that every teacher in the state teach from the Bible in the classroom. A report by the Washington Examiner that Walters shared on social media said the rule would apply only to fifth through 12th grade classrooms.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court earlier this week struck down the contract for a religious charter school in the state, saying it was unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union this week also sued the state of Louisiana for requiring classrooms to display the Biblical Ten Commandments alongside a statement about their historical presence in American education.

Why is Walters implementing this rule? Walters said the Bible played a key role in the formation of Western civilization. He noted that it was also instrumental in the founding of the United States and that it served as the basis for many of Martin Luther King Jr.’s remarks during the Civil Rights Movement.

Dig deeper: Listen to Kim Henderson’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about Louisiana putting the Ten Commandments back in classrooms.