The attorney general issued his edict days after the state Supreme Court ruled against a publicly funded religious charter school.
By Justin Kingcade
National Reporter
NBC News
Oklahoma will require schools to teach the Bible and have a copy in every classroom, the state’s top education official announced Thursday.
Effective immediately, Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible as part of the curricula in grades five through 12, according to a memo Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters sent to all school districts. Schools are instructed to refer to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for their “substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.”
“Immediate and strict compliance is expected,” the memo noted.
Walters said at a state Board of Education meeting Thursday, “We’ll be teaching from the Bible in the classroom to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.”
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonprofit civil liberties group, said in a statement that Walters’ new Bible policy is “trampling the religious freedom of public school children and their families.”
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE AT NBC NEWS
About the Author
