This isn’t the first time Oklahoma state school superintendent Ryan Walters has been in the news. Not long ago he had to revise his plan to spend taxpayer money on 55,000 Bibles for public school classrooms, because the Bibles Walters requested had to meet certain requirements, including having the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence enclosed inside the book.
The Bible, as everyone knows, is not an American document. Although most of America’s founders practiced some form of Christianity, even the most religiously ardent among them would never have asked for the country’s founding documents to be elevated to the same status as holy scriptures.
One Christian book distributor, who carries 2,900 Bible options, said that none of their versions met the requirements in Oklahoma’s request. Local journalists found only two that did: both of them endorsed by Donald Trump, and both costing more than $60 each. (By contrast, you can buy paperback copies of the Bible sans Constitution for $2.99 each, or access it entirely for free on a number of websites and apps.)
The blowback was swift, with even local superintendents of faith saying they would not be complying with Walters’s mandate. Rob Miller, who is in charge of Bixby Public Schools said, “As a Christian myself, the idea of diminishing the word of God to a mere classroom prop is a little repulsive to me, so we will not be complying with that directive of having a physical Bible in every classroom.”
And now, Walters is back in the news. This time because of last-minute changes to the Oklahoma Social Studies curriculum standards that require students to learn 2020 election conspiracy theories.
And this will not affect only Oklahoma: as one state tries and succeeds at something, other states will soon follow.
As a longtime educator, I can tell you how tedious the curriculum standards development process is, so there is no chance these additions were accidental. These standards were written in advance, shielded from public view, and then swiftly adopted at the 11th hour.
I reached out to , who writes here on Substack, and who has been covering issues related to education for a long time — join us for this conversation about what’s going on, and why it should matter to all of us.
What happens when lies are taught as fact in classrooms?