Oklahoma teachers were told to use the Bible. There’s resistance from schools as students return

BIXBY, Oklahoma — Oklahoma’s Bixby School District has a lot to offer a fast-growing Tulsa suburb: a state-of-the-art new high school expected to open in 2025, a new ninth-grade gymnasium and plans for a $12 million upgrade to a soccer complex that already rivals those of many small colleges.

But what the district doesn’t have now that students have returned this week is a Bible in every classroom — despite a Oklahoma Education Chief’s Statewide Mandate to include Bible lessons and promises of repercussions for those who do not adhere. Other large school districts have also publicly stated that they are not making any changes.

The backlash follows a summer executive order that propelled Oklahoma to the center of a growing movement by conservatives to give religion a greater role in U.S. public schools. Still, the fight may not be over yet, with other states, including neighboring Texas, seeing Republicans make gains. similar attempts to integrate the Bible in classrooms.

“If there is no curriculum standard that fits that particular grade level, what would be the purpose of a Bible if not for pure indoctrination?” said Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller, a retired Marine Corps gunner whose office walls are adorned with medals from some of the 18 marathons he has run and a sign that reads, “Positive Vibes Only.”

Miller said it’s not uncommon to see students carrying a Bible or praying during a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. Two copies of the Bible are available for checkout in the reference section of the high school library, along with a book titled “The History of the Bible,” which features maps and other historical details about the Holy Lands mentioned in Scripture.

But he said a Bible simply isn’t useful in a seventh-grade math class or a high school chemistry class.

“As a Christian, I feel a little offended that the word of God is being reduced to a mere classroom prop,” he said.

It’s unclear how many, if any, Oklahoma school districts will resume school this month with a Bible in every classroom. Department of Education spokesman Dan Isett said the mandate is not optional and that the superintendent has “a wide range of tools to deal with rogue districts” that don’t comply.

Under this mandate, Oklahoma schools must include the Bible in the curriculum for all public school students in grades five through twelve.

Law firms representing them and the state’s largest teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association, have also advised school districts to determine that the school principal does not have the authority to issue such a requirement and that the edict is unenforceable.

The decision by many Oklahoma school districts to ignore State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ directive has not gone down well with the first-term Republican, who criticized the districts at the start of a recent board meeting.

“These are the districts that want pornography for children in the name of inclusivity, but don’t want the historical context of the Bible,” Walters said, referring to a failed effort by his education department to force a local district to remove the books “The Kite Runner” and “The Glass Castle” removed from the library due to sexual content.

“It’s outrageous. We won’t allow it. Just because they don’t like it, just because they’re offended by it, just because they don’t want to do it, doesn’t mean they won’t do it. They will be held accountable.”

Walters’ directive is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative states to crack down on public schools: Louisiana has required them to Ten Commandments in Classroomswhile others are under pressure to teaching the Bible And ban books and lessons on race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Earlier this summer, the Oklahoma Supreme Court an attempt blocked established by the state to establish the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country.

Walters, himself a former public school teacher who was elected to the position in 2022, ran in the election a platform to combat the ‘woke ideology’, banning books from school libraries and removing “radical leftists” who he says are indoctrinating children in classrooms.

Among his Republican colleagues in the Legislature, patience with Walters appears to be wearing thin. State Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican from Moore who chairs the subcommittee that funds public schools, requested an investigation into Walters earlier this month over what McBride called the department’s failure to comply with legal guidelines on funding and to provide requested documents on spending. More than two dozen GOP House members signed McBride’s request, prompting House Speaker Charles McCall to call for an independent investigation into the Education Department.

Walters, for his part, dismissed the investigation as a “political attack” by House leaders and alluded to the 2026 gubernatorial election, where both McCall and Walters have been mentioned as possible candidates for the seat being vacated by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is term-limited.

Grant Sullivan, owner of Scott’s Hamburgers in downtown Bixby and who preaches every Sunday at a small church in the nearby town of Morris, says he questions whether the biblical mandate is a good idea.

“Have we thought this through?” asked Sullivan, who has a master’s degree in theology from Oklahoma Christian University and two children in Bixby schools. “What if you happen to have an atheist teacher? Are they going to teach it in a way that is perhaps more problematic than helpful?

“It feels like it belongs here and that the church thinks the same way.”