JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Earlier this summer, Oklahoma's top schools official ordered that districts supply Bibles to classrooms and have educators teach from them. But as school started, some districts resisted. Beth Wallis of the member station collaboration StateImpact Oklahoma has the story.
BETH WALLIS: State school superintendent Ryan Walters made the announcement at a June 27 state board of education meeting.
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RYAN WALTERS: Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.
WALLIS: And as some pushback came in, he warned in late July he would hold accountable, quote, "rogue administrators."
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WALTERS: Just because they don't like it, just because they're offended by it, just 'cause they don't want to do it doesn't mean that they won't do it. We will enforce the law.
WALLIS: Walters says the Bible is, quote, "indispensable in understanding the development of Western civilization," but local superintendents say those aren't calls Walters can make.
JASON PEREZ: Who really makes that decision? Is that truly something can come from the state department of education? And really, the answer was no.
WALLIS: That's Jason Perez, superintendent at Deer Creek Public Schools near Oklahoma City. Perez says his legal team pointed to state law, which leaves instructional materials and curricula up to districts.
PEREZ: We can't be told what we're supposed to use. We can make that decision, and that's really up to our local school board to make that decision, and so that's pretty cut and dry for us.
WALLIS: Superintendent Chuck McCauley heads Bartlesville Public Schools, about 45 minutes from Tulsa. He says his district already refers to the Bible in some history classes, and the directive is a nonevent, as far as he's concerned.
CHUCK MCCAULEY: To me, the law clearly says what we're doing is right, so that's what we're going to continue to do.
WALLIS: Perez and McCauley aren't alone. StateImpact surveyed Oklahoma's 540 school superintendents in August, and 54 responded. Only two told us they were going to make changes in their instruction to teach about the Bible, and about 75% said they weren't going to supply the physical Bible, Ten Commandments or other documents Walters called for in every class.
Anne Nelson, a research scholar at New York's Columbia University, is the author of "Shadow Network," a book about the rise of the religious right in American politics, and she's also an Oklahoman.
ANNE NELSON: What's going on in Oklahoma, to me, indicates that the state is being used as a poster child for national initiatives.
WALLIS: Nelson notes other hot-button issues in Oklahoma, like an effort to create the first publicly funded religious school and a committee that includes conservative figures Walters appointed to review social studies instruction. Other states have seen proposals to display the Ten Commandments.
NELSON: You could speculate that even the controversy that these initiatives generate serves the purpose of publicizing the attempt to implement these policies in other states.
WALLIS: And Walters' public profile has been on the rise as a speaker in conservative conferences and news outlets. Here he is last month.
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WALTERS: In Oklahoma, voters have made clear that they want leaders who will completely wipe out a radical far-left agenda in our schools. That's the mandate that I'm here to fulfil, and I'm laser-focused on that and will remain so.
WALLIS: Asked about schools resisting his Bible directive, Walters' office issued a statement saying districts must teach the academic standards, and every option is on the table to hold districts accountable. For NPR News, I'm Beth Wallis in Tulsa.
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