Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction is not happy that some school districts in the state are refusing to integrate the Bible into their curriculum.
Recent reports revealed that there are eight rather large school districts in the state that are pushing back against the requirement that Ryan Walters put into place.
Over the weekend, Walters appeared on the “Fox & Friends Weekend” program, sending a quite clear message to the districts in question. He said:
“I’m going to tell these woke administrators, if they’re going to break the law and not teach it, they can go to California because … here in Oklahoma schools, we’re going to make sure that history is taught.
“What we’re doing is making sure teachers have resources in order to teach these concepts that the left has pushed out of our schools. We’re making sure that the guidelines were given out last week to make sure every individual teacher understands exactly what we’re talking about here, the historical references, where these are located in our standards.”
Walters backed up his position by saying that “we need our kids to understand … American history.”
Walters’ directive was put into place in late June of this year, and requires all districts across the state to integrate the Bible “as an instructional support into the curriculum” for all students in fifth through 12th grade.
Some Democrats and civil rights groups were outraged at the new directive, which is effective for this upcoming school year. Walters, though, argues the Bible is “foundational for education” as well as a “cornerstone of Western civilization.”
While Walters is insisting that his directive is mandatory and that all school districts in the state must abide by it, the Attorney General’s office in Oklahoma has a slightly different interpretation on the matter.
According to a report from USA Today, the state already has a law on the books that allows public school classrooms to teach the Bible. However, each district can make its own decision as to whether or not they want to do that.
The districts that said they won’t be implementing Walters’ new directive are apparently leaning on that principle of local control as to why they’re able to do so.
A memorandum was also issued to all school districts in Oklahoma by the Center for Education Law, which says that the mandate Walters passed is invalid according to Oklahoma state law.
The firm successfully brought a lawsuit by Edmond Public Schools against the Walters mandate and the Oklahoma State Board of Education. The state’s Supreme Court also ruled that content in school libraries was a decision that the state board couldn’t make, but that had to be made at the local level.
Despite all of this, Walters continues to insist that his new requirement has lots of support from parents all across Oklahoma. As he told the Fox program hosts:
“When I ran three years ago, they were crystal clear. Why in the world are we not teaching our kids that our rights came from God? Why in the world are we not referencing all these unbelievable moments in American history where the Bible was cited? It is absolutely part of our history.”
