Teachers in Oklahoma are told to use Bibles, but schools are resisting students’ return

BIXBY, Okla. (AP) — The Bixby School District in Oklahoma, a fast-growing suburb of Tulsa, has a lot to offer: a state-of-the-art new high school scheduled to open by 2025, a new ninth-grade gymnasium, and plans to upgrade a $12 million football complex that already rivals those of many small colleges.

What the district didn’t have when students returned this week, however, was a Bible in every classroom — despite a statewide order from Oklahoma’s Secretary of Education to incorporate Bible studies and threaten consequences for those who don’t comply. Other large school districts have also publicly stated they won’t make any changes either.

The resistance follows an executive order this summer that put Oklahoma at the center of a growing movement among conservatives to give religion a greater role in public schools across the U.S. Still, the fight may be far from over, as Republicans in other states, including neighboring Texas, are already making similar efforts to integrate the Bible into classroom instruction.

“If there is no curriculum that fits that particular classroom, what purpose would a Bible serve if not pure indoctrination?” says Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller, a former Marine Corps artilleryman whose office walls are decorated with medals from some of the 18 marathons he has run and a sign that reads, “Positive vibrations only.”

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

However, he said that a Bible simply wouldn’t make sense in a seventh-grade math class or a high school chemistry class.

“As a Christian myself, I am a little offended when the Word of God is reduced to a mere prop in the classroom,” he said.

It is unclear how many Oklahoma school districts will resume classes this month and place a Bible in every classroom. A spokesman for the state Department of Education, Dan Isett, said the requirement is not optional and that superintendents have “a wide range of tools to deal with rogue districts” that do not comply.

This law requires Oklahoma schools to include the Bible in the curriculum for all students in grades 5 through 12.

The school districts were also advised by the law firms representing them and the state’s largest teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association, that the superintendent does not have sole authority to issue such an order and that the order is unenforceable.

The decision of many Oklahoma school districts to ignore the orders of Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters did not please the first-term Republican, and he rebuked those districts at the start of a recent board meeting.

“These are the districts that want to show pornography to children under the guise of inclusivity but reject the historical context of the Bible,” Walters said, referring to a failed attempt by his Department of Education to force a local district to remove the books “The Kite Runner” and “The Glass Castle” from library shelves because of sexual content.

“This is outrageous. We will not allow this. Just because they don’t like it, just because they are 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’ order is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative-led states to target public schools: Louisiana has required them to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, while others are under pressure to teach the Bible and ban books and lessons on race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Earlier this summer, the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked the state’s attempt to open the first state-funded religious charter school in the country.

Walters, himself a former public school teacher and elected to office in 2022, campaigned on the slogan “woke ideology,” seeking to ban books from school libraries and get rid of “radical leftists” who he claimed were indoctrinating children in classrooms.

His Republican colleagues in the House appear to be losing patience with Walters. Rep. Mark McBride, a Moore Republican who chairs the subcommittee that oversees public school funding, called for an investigation into Walters earlier this month because, according to McBride, the department is not following statutory guidelines on funding and failing to provide requested documents on spending. More than two dozen Republican lawmakers signed McBride’s request, prompting House Speaker Charles McCall to call for an independent investigation into the Department of Education.

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

Grant Sullivan, owner of Scott’s Hamburgers in downtown Bixby and a Sunday preacher at a small church in nearby Morris, expressed concern that the Bible requirement was a good idea.

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

“It just feels like this is something for the home and for the church, that’s how I feel about it.”