New Oklahoma schools superintendent rescinds mandate for Bible
instruction in schools
[October 16, 2025]
By SEAN MURPHY
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s new public schools superintendent
announced Wednesday he is rescinding a mandate from his predecessor that
forced schools to place Bibles in classrooms and incorporate the book
into lesson plans for students.
Superintendent Lindel Fields said in a statement he has “no plans to
distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in
classrooms.” The directive last year from former Superintendent Ryan
Walters drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and
prompted a lawsuit from a group of parents, teachers and religious
leaders that is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It was to
have applied to students in grades 5 through 12.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Fields to the superintendent's post
after Walters resigned last month to take a job in the private sector.
Jacki Phelps, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of
Education, said she intends to notify the court of the agency's plan to
rescind the mandate and seek a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they were
encouraged by Fields' decision and plan to discuss next steps with their
clients.
“The attempts to promote religion in the classroom and the abuses of
power that the Oklahoma State Department of Education engaged in under
Walters’ tenure should never happen in Oklahoma or anywhere in the
United States again,” the attorneys said in a statement.
Many schools districts across the state had decided not to comply with
the Bible mandate.
A spokeswoman for the state education department, Tara Thompson, said
Fields believes the decision on whether the Bible should be incorporated
into classroom instruction is one best left up to individual districts
and that spending money on Bibles is not the best use of taxpayer
resources.
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Ryan Walters, Republican candidate for Oklahoma State
Superintendent, speaks at a rally, Nov. 1, 2022, in Oklahoma City.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
Walters in March had announced plans to team up with country music
singer Lee Greenwood seeking donations to get Bibles into classrooms
after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund
the effort.
Walters, a far-right Republican, made fighting “woke ideology",
banning certain books from school libraries and getting rid of
“radical leftists” who he claims were indoctrinating children in
classrooms a focal point of his administration. Since his election
in 2020, he imposed a number of mandates on public schools and
worked to develop new social studies standards for K-12 public
school students that included teaching about conspiracy theories
related to the 2020 presidential election. Those standards have been
put on hold while a lawsuit challenging them moves forward.
Thompson said the agency plans to review all of Walters' edicts,
including a requirement that applicants from teacher jobs coming
from California and New York take an ideology exam, to determine if
those may also be rescinded.
“We need to review all of those mandates and provide clarity to
schools moving forward,” she said.
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