Oklahoma Officials Want Bible Taught In School

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s top education official is ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12. State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a memo Thursday to school superintendents across the state. The directive is the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into the classroom. Walters said in the memo that his mandate is compulsory and “immediate and strict compliance is expected.” Walters was elected in 2022. He has embraced culture-war issues and fighting what he says is “woke ideology” in public schools as a central theme of his administration. The directive faced immediate criticism from civil rights groups and others who called it unconstitutional and an abuse of power.