Top Oklahoma education official issues directive to include Bible in public school lessons

Oklahoma’s top education official issued a directive to public school officials on Thursday to include the Bible in lessons for grades 5 through 12. 

Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters said that “immediate and strict compliance is expected” from public schools. 

“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” he said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction.”

"The left is upset, but one cannot rewrite history," he added in a post announcing the measure on X.

The move follows Louisiana's new law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms, a measure that has already attracted legal challenges.