The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down the state's controversial social studies standards, citing last minute changes that included lessons on the Bible. The standards were pushed by former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and adopted by the state board of education earlier this year.
In the closely divided opinion, the state supreme court ruled that the creation of the standards violated the Oklahoma Open Meetings Act, which requires state boards to publicly post such changes in an effort to maintain transparency.
"The version of the Standards approved by the Board on February 27, 2025, was not publicly posted until after the Board voted on the 2025 Standards," the 5-4 majority opinion said. "Three Board members stated in a subsequent meeting of the Board that they did not know that the version they were voting on was different from the version publicly posted in December 2024."
In addition, board members were notified of the new standards approximately 17 hours before voting on them, the opinion stated.
The 11th hour changes to the curriculum included requiring:
- First grade students to identify how David, Goliath, Moses and the Ten Commandments influenced American colonists, founders and culture.
- Second grade students to "identify stories from Christianity that influenced the America Founders and culture, including teachings of Jesus of Nazareth."
- Fifth graders to explain how "Biblical principles" influenced the American founders.
- High school students to describe Biblical stories.
- High school students to "identify discrepancies in the 2020 election results," partly by examining "the sudden halting of ballot counting" and “the security risks of mail-in balloting."
- High school students to "identify the source of COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab."
The state court, however, did not decide whether the inclusion of these topics violated the FIrst Amendment, which protects religious freedom. Instead, it said the board adopted "fundamentally different substantive Standards" without proper public notification.
The standards were already on pause since September, when the state supreme court said the 2019 standards would stay in place until the lawsuit challenging the 2025 standards was decided.
The decision this week keeps the old standards in place until the state board "properly" creates new standards for social studies, which will then go to the legislature for approval, the opinion states.
"The Oklahoma State Supreme Court just launched an incredibly aggressive attack on Christianity, the Bible, on President Trump," said Walters in a video posted to X on Wednesday. The standards, he said, were meant to "bring back an understanding of the role of the Bible in world history and American history."
"These justices should be ashamed of themselves," he added, calling on the justices to resign. Walters resigned in September from his role as top education official of Oklahoma, after a turbulent time in office that included other attempts to incorporate the Bible in public schools.
Civil rights organizations celebrated the ruling.
“The authority to govern comes with accountability for making decisions in the full view of the people the government serves," said Brent Rowland, legal director of Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit that focuses on education and other local social issues, in a Tuesday statement. "This decision moves us toward the open, rigorous, and inclusive public education our students deserve.”
Dive Awards
