Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is on a mission to reinstate biblical history in public education once again. In June, Walters announced that a Bible would be placed in every classroom in the state, and the teachers would begin using it in the curricula. Last week, he reported that his office had procured over 500 Bibles toward that goal.
“The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system — and is frankly, we’re talking about the Bible, one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country,” Walters noted.
Schools will begin implementing Scripture in Advanced Placement (AP) Government classes, where Walters hopes it will help students better understand American history and Western civilization. The Bible is not just a religious text, but one of America’s founding documents that helped shape our nation’s society, government, and all aspects of our history.
In October, Walters spoke at Family Voice’s Stand Dinner to discuss Oklahoma’s approach to education and how South Dakota could forge a similar path. These ideas are nothing new – it was the standard 80 years ago before the radical Left took control of higher education, and then public education.
“Our education system has been hijacked by national teachers unions, by radical Leftists for decades now and you’ve seen the results of it,” Walters shared. “You’ve seen kids that have been taught to hate their country, you’ve seen kids that have been taught to hate the traditional family, and you’ve seen kids turned against Christianity and their faith. This is not a coincidence. This has been a strategy of the Left started in higher ed institutions in the 1960s.”
Walters explained that when he began his role as superintendent, his priority was to put family values at the center of every policy Oklahoma implements for its schools. He said knowing that God created families as the building block of society, and knowing that God gives kids to their parents to raise, not to bureaucrats, changes everything. First on his agenda was to pass universal school choice so parents could decide where to enroll their children – whether that’s a public, private, charter, or home school.
“It makes the Left angry to put parents in charge because they control so many of the systems,” Walters noted in his speech. “When you put parents in charge through school choice, that power is taken from [the Left] and it’s put right where it should belong – with parents.”
It’s not an overstatement to say that Walters is shaking up the education system in America by bringing these ideas to the forefront for a national conversation. His accomplishments in Oklahoma are helping other states realize it’s not impossible to restore our broken education system. We can bring back traditional education that is focused on learning, not indoctrination, and not revisionist history. We’re excited to see what God has in store over the next four years in South Dakota and across the nation under a president who supports traditional education and biblical values.
