Several district school superintendents in Oklahoma are revolting over State Superintendent Ryan Walters's mandate to teach the Bible in public schools.
Local news station KGOU reports that dozens of superintendents are blowing off a Walters directive announced this past summer that "all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum across specified grade levels, e.g., grades 5 through 12.”
But as one superintendent explained to KGOU, mandating Bible instruction in public schools raises all kinds of thorny issues, even if everyone in the class is already a Christian.
“I told teachers if they wanted to comply with this edict, that I would stand behind them," the superintendent said. "If they want Bibles, we will buy them. Most teachers are Christians themselves, and don’t want ANOTHER type of Christian teaching their child anything about the Bible, and are therefore not going near this.”
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Superintendent Rick Cobb of Mid-Del Public Schools, meanwhile, lamented that Walters has been so "unpredictable" as state superintendent, which has left many teachers and administrators in the state in a state of confusion.
“I’m not losing sleep over thinking how [Walters] might retaliate,” Cobb said. “I’ll address it when it comes up... he’s so unpredictable. Everything out of the state department is so unpredictable right now that I think you just have to address things as they happen and not anticipate them.”
Oklahoma school districts have justified their defiance to the Walters order by pointing to state law that gives local school districts authority over all "instruction, curriculum, reading lists and instruction materials and textbooks" that their students receive. Walters, however, insists that his plan is in the best interest of educating students.
"We want our kids here in Oklahoma to understand American history better than any in the country, and we're laying out a roadmap for every state to follow," he said.
However, the chances of any state following Oklahoma's education policies appear remote.
Earlier this year, Forbes conducted a review of standardized test scores across the United States and found that Oklahoma finished dead last.
"Oklahoma placed at the bottom of our ranking, with 26.83% of fourth graders demonstrating proficiency or higher in math, and 24.02% performing the same in reading," the publication notes. "NAEP performances declined through the eighth grade, falling by 5.55% and 2.74% in math and reading, respectively."
