Oklahoma Supreme Court invalidates plan to infuse Bible into social studies curriculum
Ruling based on technical violations of law rather than substance of new policy
New social studies standards that would have required Oklahoma public schools to implement some Bible-based instruction were struck down by the state’s Supreme Court this week, possibly dealing a fatal blow to the brainchild of the state’s controversial former superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters.
The ruling means that the Oklahoma State Board of Education must start over in rewriting the curriculum, which is updated every six years.
The board will be doing its work with the assistance of its new school superintendent, Lindel Fields, who took over after Walters resigned at the end of September to accept the top leadership post with an activist organization devoted to offering teachers an alternative to what it sees as left-wing teacher unions.
Although the Oklahoma court based its ruling on technical issues relating to the how the new standards were adopted rather than their substance, Fields has said1 he expects to see changes to the standards, which have been highly controversial and the subject of at least two lawsuits. “I think we need to look at all of the things that were added to see if they’re germane to what kids need to learn,” he was quoted as saying by the Oklahoma Voice.
Among other things, the now-invalidated standards would have required:
Teaching on how the Declaration of Independence was “influenced by Biblical principles” and on how the nation’s founders used the the Bible as “a frequently cited authority.”
Teaching on the “growing discontent with the Catholic Church, including the main ideas of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and the role of William Tyndale” and how they transformed society.
Students to be able to describe the Old Testament “account of the unification of the tribes of Israel under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon, including David’s founding of Jerusalem in 1000 BC and the building of the first temple by Solomon.”
Students to be able to describe “the central features of Christianity in ancient Rome (e.g., monotheism, belief and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as the messiah, the influence of the Hebrew Bible on the Christian Old and New Testaments, the influence of the apostle Paul, and the meanings and effects of Jesus of Nazareth’s words as recorded by Matthew).”
Students to be able to identify stories “about people and ideas from Judaism that influenced the American colonists, the Founders, and American culture (e.g., David and Goliath, Moses and the Ten Commandments).”
The curriculum that was struck down also included provisions that would have generally promoted President Donald Trump’s political agenda, such as expecting students to explain the effects of the Trump tax cuts and his efforts to reduce inflation. More controversially, the curriculum would have expected students to be able to describe “the source of the COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab” and “discrepancies in 2020 elections results.”
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling, made on 5-4 vote in Randal v. Fields, said the court did not need to address the substance of the curriculum standards because of violations of Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. The court’s main concern was that some of the most controversial provisions in the new standards were not put on the board’s agenda with informative notice until less than 24 hours before they were considered.
Specifically, the court said, “the public body used the agenda items in the notice for the purpose of adopting fundamentally different substantive Standards not placed on the notice of the agenda. The Board’s notice of the agenda was not sufficient to apprise the public of the substantive standards being considered for adoption.”
The four justices dissenting to the ruling also focused on interpreting the Open Meeting Act rather than the substance of the curriculum.
See the reporting of the Oklahoma Voice in “New Oklahoma state superintendent expects ‘changes’ to controversial social studies standards.”