First Amendment

States Are Trying To Force the Bible Into the Classroom

“The separation of church and state appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution," a top Oklahoma education official said in defense of the state's Ten Commandments decree.

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topicseducation | Illustration: Joanna Andreasson; Source images: iStock
(Illustration: Joanna Andreasson; Source images: iStock)

In June, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed a bill mandating that all public school classrooms display a poster of the Ten Commandments. Just over a week later, Oklahoma's State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters declared that "every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom," later telling PBS News Hour, "the separation of church and state appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution."

Since 2023, four states have attempted to mandate or are considering legislation mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Arizona legislators actually passed a Ten Commandments mandate, but Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ultimately vetoed the bill. In Utah, lawmakers passed a watered-down version of a bill that originally mandated classroom posters of the Ten Commandments but by the time it became law in March instead required the text be incorporated in classroom instruction.

Many critics insist that mandates forcing schools to display the Ten Commandments or teach from the Bible are obviously unconstitutional attempts to put religious instruction in public schools. Louisiana's "law violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and long standing Supreme Court precedent," says Heather Weaver, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. "The separation of church and state means that the government can't use our public schools to religiously indoctrinate or convert students."

In July, a group of parents sued Louisiana, arguing that its law violates their own and their children's First Amendment rights. The law "unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state's favored religious scripture," their suit reads. "It substantially interferes with and burdens the right of parents to direct their children's religious education and upbringing."

But many lawmakers don't seem concerned about potential legal challenges.

"Look, there are people that don't believe in our Constitution and we can post that on the walls," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told Newsmax in June. "This is a document that has historical roots in our country's foundations. The United States Supreme Court has recognized that."

"If we get sued and we get challenged, we will be victorious," Walters told PBS News Hour. "The Supreme Court justices [Donald Trump] appointed actually are originalists that look at the Constitution and not what some left-wing professor said about the Constitution."

Why are so many states attempting to infuse religious texts into the classroom?

The most obvious reason is that the Ten Commandments have become yet another front in our never-ending education culture war. As public schools in some blue states have come under fire for pushing progressive politics in the classroom, some Republican politicians seem to be attempting to squeeze in some ideological indoctrination of their own. The debate around Louisiana's bill, for example, was dominated by lawmakers who insisted that a Ten Commandments mandate would make children behave better and in accordance with Christian values.

"I really believe that we are lacking in direction. A lot of people, their children, are not attending churches or whatever," said state Rep. Sylvia Taylor (D–LaPlace), a co-author and co-sponsor of the Louisiana bill, debating in its favor. "We need to do something in the schools to bring people back to where they need to be."

It's hard not to view these bills and directives as pure political theater.

Even if a bill mandating that schools display the Ten Commandments gets struck down, legislators supporting the bill still get to tout their record as strident Christian conservatives. In Oklahoma the memo following Walters' announcement bore little resemblance to his original statement. It stated that the Bible and the Ten Commandments would be "referenced as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like"—a directive much more likely to pass constitutional muster. Formal guidance released in July inched closer to the line, adding a requirement that every classroom be provided with a Bible, along with directives that students be taught skills like literary analysis using Bible stories as examples.

For now, a federal judge will decide whether Louisiana's Ten Commandments mandate can be enforced.

"Hundreds of thousands of kids are going to be required to see these displays every day in every classroom," Weaver says. "This is an obvious attempt to use our public schools to convert kids to Christianity. We live in a democracy, not a theocracy."