Oklahoma ‘immediately’ requires schools to teach the Bible: ‘Strict compliance is expected’

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Oklahoma’s chief school official has notified all state schools to “immediately” incorporate the Bible into classroom curriculum, drawing immediate outrage and threats of lawsuits in a state that was recently reprimanded for trying to use taxpayer dollars to create a Catholic school. “Effective immediately, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum” in grades 5 through 12, according to the notice from Republican school superintendent Ryan Walters. “The left is upset, but one cannot rewrite history.” Oklahoma school superintendent Ryan Walters is mandating all schools teach the Bible in grades 5-12. “His latest scheme — to mandate use of the Bible in Oklahoma public schools’ curriculum — is a transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students.” Laser warned that the state’s latest gambit is “textbook Christian nationalism” and part of a wave of right-wing threats to public education, according to Laster.