Oklahoma drops plan to force schools to teach Bible lessons in social studies classes. The state may also do away with its collaboration with the right-wing propaganda outfit, PragerU.

>Oklahoma’s new head of education, Lindel Fields, is dropping an unconstitutional requirement for schools to teach Bible-based social studies lessons. The requirement — issued by the state’s former head of education, Ryan Walters — resulted in lawsuits, alleging that it violated state policy-making rules and First Amendment protections against the establishment of a religion by the government.

>Last month, [the state Supreme Court ruled](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/state-supreme-court-says-christian-education-head-cant-force-schools-to-teach-the-bible/) that Walters couldn’t force schools to accept his requirement. In June 2024, Walters and the Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) issued a guidance saying that K-12 school lessons should focus on the Bible’s influence on history, literature, music, and other arts and culture. Walters’ guidance mandated that every classroom contain a physical copy of the Bible, as well as copies of the Ten Commandments, the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.

>After Walters released his guidance, about 33 Oklahoma parents, children, public school teachers, and faith leaders filed a lawsuit, alleging that the requirement violated the separation of church and state and state rule-making laws requiring the OSBE to provide proper public notice before voting on implementing any new curriculum standards.

>“Superintendent Fields has no plans to distribute Bibles or a biblical education curriculum,” said interim Communications Director for Oklahoma State’s Department of Education Tara Thompson.

I’m an Oklahoma teacher of social studies. We had to basically this year go and self-generate social studies standards to make social studies, in light of the derillction of duty from Walters. This is such a breath of fresh air. We had been under such duress as a state 50th in education. We need this change at every level, purging out Walters destructive mess.

a step in the right direction. Not all done but still nice to see

Right up until Donny threatens to pull some ambiguous funding, then it’s back in line for them.

But they were racing ahead at being behind.

When it was first announced that Oklahoma schools would be violating the first amendment, conservatives declared that “the nation is healing.”

Well, now it appears that the “nation” has just stitched up a wound.

This shift & the public statements around it are a wildly welcome admission — insofar as there will be *any* admission — by one of the nation’s staunchest MAGA govs that his creepy friend was maybe not the dude who should have been making the kinds of basic decisions that determine educational norms for a whole state.

*Of course* the weirdo would misappropriate educational funds to pay PR firms! *Of course* he would institute policies designed to attract national attention! Etc., etc., etc.

Replacing him with a public-minded functionary (whose beliefs I presume are wildly different from mine, but which do not impact the *basic work of governing the public school system*) is such a hopeful sign in dark times. Here’s hoping for kids in Oklahoma

Ryan Walters is such a human shit-stain. He comes into the job wreaking havoc and subjecting Oklahoma school districts to a bunch of lawsuits and then flits off to run some anti-teachers union grift before the consequences of his malicious leadership start to hit.

If conservatives were serious about teaching the Bible in school, they would advocate for a comparative religion class. That way students could benefit from the academic understanding of religion.

This kind of thing is what religious zealots have always run up against when they try to mix church and state.

If Oklahoma can have Bible’s mandated in the schools, and mandatory Bible classes, then that means Dearborn Michigan could put Quran in the classroom, and teach Islamic jurisprudence. No Christian fundamentalist wants that to happen, so it’s in their interest to withdraw the request for special treatment for their religion.

I find it insane in this current MAGA incarnation of reactionary conservatism that we are literally having to relitigate all the issues of the last 80 years, and people are dead set against learning the lessons that were learned, and purchased with blood sweat and tears over the past 80 to 100 years.

We shouldn’t need to be forcing prayer or Bible’s in classrooms

We shouldn’t need to be mandating bans on abortion

We shouldn’t need to be repealing key elements of civil rights legislation

This is all stuff that previous generations learned from, and we are just relitigating.

It’s absolutely bat shit insane that we’re even dealing with this stuff in the year 2025 .

Hmm… Odd. I refuse to believe a GOP person would do the “decent” or “legal” thing of their own free thinking. Something, someone, somewhere is making them lose money for this.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Governor Newsom threatening to pull the funding plug on the NGA?

You mean they might needs to separate Church from State? Say it ain’t so! /s/

You can’t be stupid forever. Maybe they’re turning a corner. LOL

Instead of Hoovervilles we will have Trumpvilles

They probably realized that if kids read and understood the Bible they’d know inaccurate the Republicans Supply Side Jesus is.

Good

Ahh man. I was planning on becoming a substitute teacher in Oklahoma to teach the [Documentary Hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis) to high schoolers by showing them how Genesis 1 – Genesis 2:3 and Genesis 2:4 – Genesis 4 are two separate independent creation myths (from differing factions within proto-Judaism) that were sandwiched together, likely during the Babylonian exile. Oh well, I guess they will just have to find this out the old fashioned way, through social media. It’s not like their parents or pastors are ever going to tell them this.

Oklahama’s gain is now everyone’s pain. Mr. watches porn in his office wants to take his agenda nationally now.