Oklahoma's Supreme Court blocks Ryan Walters' Bible-heavy Social Studies standards

The judges temporarily halted a Christian Nationalist curriculum that downplays systemic racism, spreads election lies, and pretends the Bible is history

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Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has hit yet another major snag in his attempt to indoctrinate children with right-wing Christian propaganda in classrooms. This time, the state’s Supreme Court put a temporary block on his revised social studies curriculum.

You may recall that Walters released those standards in December, got the state’s Board of Education to approve them in February without telling them he had made even more controversial changes to them, and the Republican legislature (which had the power to block them) chose to ignore the problem in May.

In those standards, Walters demanded that teachers tell kids that the 2020 election had major “discrepancies” (it did not), that there were security risks with mail-in ballots and “sudden batch dumps” (there were not), and that COVID originated in a Chinese lab (despite no conclusive proof of that). It incorporated the phrase “Gulf of America.” It removed certain requirements that taught about racial discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The standards also treated the Bible as a foundational document, turning religious mythology into historical fact. They cited “Judeo-Christian ideals in supporting colonial demands for independence,” the “teachings of Jesus of Nazareth,” and asked students to explain how the Constitution “was influenced by religion, morality, and the Bible.” It was as if Christian pseudo-historian David Barton influenced the entire damn thing.

The endorsement of religion wasn’t the only reasons the standards were problematic, though. As the lawsuit filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice explained, Walters violated the state’s Open Meeting Act when he urged the school board to pass his modified standards without ever letting the public see his revisions in advance. He also lied to those school board members and said they needed to vote on the standards immediately even though they actually had two more months before they needed to make a decision. The standards also violated a rule that the material be accurate and age-appropriate.

Those revised standards were set to go into effect in August when school resumed, but two lawsuits were filed to put a stop to that. It also didn’t help that several major textbook publishers, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, refused to participate in the charade and create textbooks that included Walters’ brand of whitewashed, Jesus-infused history. (It would have been bad for their own brands.)

That left school districts in a bind. They could ignore the new standards and risk losing funds from the state. They could move forward with the new standards and have teachers offer disclaimers when teaching the bullshit parts of the Walters curriculum. They could just cave and make their students dumber, which is what Republicans want anyway.

But now, perhaps, they won’t have to make a decision at all.

On Monday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court voted 5-2 to put a temporary block on the Walters curriculum while one of the lawsuits against them (Randall v. Walters) continues making its way through the legal process. (Two other justices recused themselves from this case for unknown reasons. One dissenting judge said he preferred to wait for lower courts to weigh in before the Supreme Court did.)

It was a very short statement:

Petitioners challenge the validity of the 2025 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies. The Court assumes original jurisdiction for the purposes of issuing a temporary stay pending the litigation herein. No further action shall be taken and no public funds shall be spent by Respondents the Oklahoma State Board of Education or the Oklahoma State Department of Education to enforce or implement the 2025 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies pending further order of this Court. Respondents shall treat the 2019 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies as the applicable academic standards pending further order of this Court.

The fact that no public funds can be spent implementing the new curriculum is a big deal because state legislators had allocated $33 million towards creating assessments, conducting trainings, and purchasing textbooks.

That last line may be the most important. Until this issue is resolved, public schools need to revert back to the (non-controversial) 2019 version of the standards… which is what they had been using anyway.

Also important is the fact that the Oklahoma Supreme Court says it’ll hear this matter directly rather than wait for the litigation to play out in lower courts.

AU and the Appleseed Center celebrated the halt:

“Today’s ruling will help ensure that Oklahoma families—not politicians—get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. “These new social studies standards would violate students’ and families’ religious freedom by promoting one version of Christianity and advancing Christian Nationalist disinformation. Not on our watch. Public schools are not Sunday schools.”

Brent Rowland, legal director of Oklahoma Appleseed: “This is a victory for transparency, fairness, and the constitutional rights of all Oklahomans. The authority to govern comes with accountability for making decisions in the full view of the people the government serves. Public school classrooms may not be used to endorse religious doctrine—no matter what the religion is or how many people follow it. Blocking these standards means Oklahoma students can learn history and civics in a way that respects every family’s beliefs while inspiring them to think critically, ask questions, and engage as informed members of our democracy. This ruling moves us toward the open, rigorous, and inclusive public education our students deserve.”

Walters, on the other hand, predictably whined about how his state’s Supreme Court was “out of step” with the people, despite most of those judges being Republican appointees.

State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who strongly pushed for adoption of the standards, said in a statement issued after the ruling that the court "is embarrassing and clearly is out of step with Oklahomans."

"They’re ignoring the fact that in other states the Bible is openly taught as the cornerstone of Western civilization," he said. "Christianity, American exceptionalism, and conservative values are under attack and the Oklahoma Supreme Court is leading the assault.”

He’s probably mad because the same court also shot down his scheme to open up a religious charter school with taxpayer funds.

The bottom line is that students are going to be better off because the guy who runs education in their state—and wants to keep those children as ignorant as possible—was thwarted yet again.

(Incidentally, the second lawsuit against these standards, Ford v. Walters, was dismissed by a lower court judge but that ruling has been appealed to the State Supreme Court.)

This fight is ultimately not just about one set of social studies standards. It’s about whether Oklahoma will let its public schools be turned into indoctrination camps for Christian Nationalism and political disinformation.

Walters’ attempt to erase systemic racism, spread right-wing lies, and elevate the Bible to the level of a founding document was never about “education.” It was about weaponizing ignorance to churn out a generation of children who can’t tell the difference between history and propaganda. The Supreme Court’s stay doesn’t just block a bad curriculum; it gives us hope that they’ll soon expose the authoritarian rot at the core of Walters’ agenda.

Oklahoma is already struggling with underfunded schools, teacher shortages, and poor educational outcomes. (Walters made things worse by publicizing a conservative group’s PR campaign to filter out “woke” teachers who may want to transfer to Oklahoma from blue states.) Now the state is being further sabotaged by a superintendent more interested in serving right-wing ideology than students. That the Republican-dominated legislature stood by and let this farce unfold only underscores the depth of political cowardice at work.

Thankfully the state’s Supreme Court has once again stepped in to save the voters from themselves.

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