The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that former state education head Ryan Walters’ attempt to force Christian Nationalist propaganda into public school social studies curriculum violated the state’s Open Meeting Act.

Walters, who quit before the end of his term to work for a right-wing group that opposes “woke teachers’ unions,” called the court’s decision an “incredibly aggressive attack on Christianity, the bible, [and] on President Trump.”

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In June 2024, Walters and the Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) issued a guidance saying that K-12 lessons should focus on the Bible’s influence on history, literature, music, and other arts and culture. Walters’ guidance mandated that every classroom contain a physical copy of the Bible, as well as copies of the Ten Commandments, the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.

Walters had also required that future social studies texts include statements that inaccurately proclaim the Bible’s and Christianity’s influence on the country’s founding, disproven conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and a theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Chinese laboratory. The new textbooks would cost state taxpayers $33 million.

However, while the OSBE and its new head of education Lindel Fields announced in October the state’s plans to drop these changes, the 33 Oklahoma parents, children, public school teachers, and faith leaders who filed a lawsuit against the changes asked the state Supreme Court to rule on whether Walters violated state rule-making laws. The laws require the OSBE to provide proper public notice before voting on implementing any new curriculum standards.

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The court found that Walters didn’t provide proper notice to OSBE members or the public about his changes, and that the curriculum standards ultimately submitted by Walters and OSBE were “substantially different from the version released publicly,” KOKH-TV reported.

As such, court invalidated Walters’ new standards and reinstated the 2019 version of the standards which existed before Walters’ changes.

In separate statements, Americans United and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which represented the plaintiffs, celebrated the ruling.

“Today’s decision will 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 violated 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.”

In response to the ruling, Walters said, “Today the [Oklahoma] Supreme Court launched an incredibly aggressive attack on Christianity, the bible, on President Trump. The Oklahoma Supreme Court, striking down the history standards that so many Oklahomans demanded.”

It’s unclear which Oklahomans demanded the new standards seeing as he refused to publicly release them as required by law.

“They struck down the history standards, spitting in the face of so many Oklahomans and frankly, common sense…. This is outrageous to see this kind of left-wing judicial activism in the state where every county voted for President Trump,” Walters continued. “These justices should be ashamed of themselves. They should resign immediately.”

Former OK schools chief Ryan Walters is melting down after the OK Supreme Court struck down the history curriculum he mandated, which included Bible study and materials arguing that the 2020 election was stolen. pic.twitter.com/iRRyujjQce

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 18, 2025

Walters had a notoriously scandal-ridden tenure

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) replaced Waters with retired school superintendent Lindel Fields. Soon after, the OSDE reversed one of Walters’ first actions by restoring the OSDE’s Hall of Fame, which honors the state’s past award recipients for Teacher of the Year. The OSDE also quickly revamped its website, removing numerous links that promoted Christian Nationalist misinformation, including Walters’ unconstitutional order for schools to display The Ten Commandments.

Additionally, State Attorney General Gentner Drummond has ordered the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office to investigate the Education Department’s finances over the entirety of Walters’ tenure in charge. Drummond said, “[Walters had a] well-established history of mishandling tax dollars.”

During his tenure, Walters withheld $150 million in public school funds to ostensibly make security enhancements against school shootings, in defiance of legislation directing the funds to poorer rural schools. Walters hid information about his office’s travel budget and refused to spend money that he was legally obligated to spend on asthma inhalers for students, The Friendly Atheist added.

Walters sought to ban LGBTQ+ books but teach the Bible in public school history classes, and pushed the transphobic lie about schools providing litterboxes to students who identify as cats. He also referred to teachers’ unions as “terrorist organizations” and illegally tried to make rules banning LGBTQ+ books and transgender bathroom access in schools.

He has appeared at events hosted by Moms for Liberty, a right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” group that has been called an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also appointed Chaya Raichik, an anti-LGBTQ+ activist who goes by Libs of TikTok online, as a Library Media Advisor for the state (even though she has no educational experience, doesn’t reside in Oklahoma, and has made posts that have led to bomb threats against students).

He also unveiled an ideological purity test to seek and remove “woke” teachers. (The test was criticized as “performative bulls**t” and as an advertisement “masquerading as an assessment.”)

The day before his resignation, he pledged to force all schools statewide to host student groups for Turning Point USA, the young conservatives group started by recently murdered anti-LGBTQ+ MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.

Oklahoma ranks among the worst states for education and is facing a teacher shortage.

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