When Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters ordered every public school student from fifth to twelfth grade to study the Bible this year, something unexpected happened: they said no.

Not protesters. Not the ACLU. The superintendents themselves. A StateImpact Oklahoma survey found that only 2 out of 54 superintendents would comply with the mandate. Major districts including Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Moore, and Stillwater publicly refused. In deep-red Oklahoma, where Trump won every single county, career educators looked at boxes of Trump-endorsed "God Bless the USA" Bibles and chose potential career suicide over forcing children to study scripture in public schools.

Board members describe working with Walters as "hand-to-hand combat." When he threatened to revoke teaching licenses and strip accreditation from non-complying districts, they still refused.

That word indoctrination has become one of conservatives' favorite accusations against public schools. They claim teachers are "grooming" children with "woke ideology." But while they're warning about imaginary threats, they're implementing actual indoctrination programs that would have seemed impossible just five years ago. The evidence isn't hidden. It's in state budgets and federal court documents.

Take Texas. After watching Oklahoma's biblical mandate fail in court, Texas officials learned: don't mandate, bribe. Their Bluebonnet curriculum requires students to memorize the biblical order of creation and teaches the Golden Rule exclusively through Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. Christianity is presented as historical fact while other religions are treated as mythology. Districts that adopt it get $60 per student in state funding.

For a struggling rural district with 1,000 students, that's $60,000, enough to hire a teacher or fix a roof. The strategy is working. Three hundred seventeen districts teaching approximately 25% of Texas students have adopted the curriculum. Urban districts like Houston and Dallas declined. Rural districts in Kilgore, Amarillo, and Victoria couldn't afford to.

---

Meanwhile, Florida banned 4,561 books last year, accounting for 45% of all book bans nationwide. One activist from "No Left Turn in Education" initiated the vast majority of Clay County's 287 removals. They pulled Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" from shelves. Yet Florida's curriculum still teaches that enslaved people "developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." The curriculum's authors publicly state they "proudly stand behind" this language.

Your child can't read Maya Angelou, but they have to learn that slavery “had benefits.”

The psychological research paints the picture more clearly. A 2023 study in Mental Health, Religion & Culture found 27-33% of American adults have experienced religious trauma, with symptoms including anxiety (16.7%), stress (14.9%), and depression (14.5%). Research in the Journal of School Health shows LGBTQ+ students face particular vulnerability to religious trauma in educational settings.

Now consider LifeWise Academy, which pulls 100,000 students from regular classes across 1,100 schools in 34 states for Christian instruction. Students get red t-shirts and ride red buses. They receive ice cream parties and popcorn for recruiting classmates. Jewish students have reported antisemitic comments from participants to the Anti-Defamation League. Non-participating students describe feeling pressured or excluded. The program operates on a $35 million budget in 303 Ohio districts alone, nearly half the state.

This is the indoctrination actually happening in American schools. Not drag queens reading picture books. Not teachers acknowledging gay families exist. It's Christianity forced on children through financial coercion, during school hours, funded by taxpayers.

But the Oklahoma rebellion taught us something crucial: you can fight this and win.

When 52 superintendents refused Walters' mandate, he couldn't fire them all. The Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked the program after 32 plaintiffs, parents, teachers, and faith leaders, sued. Federal courts have maintained a 100% success rate blocking Ten Commandments displays. Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas all tried. All failed. Judges called them "plainly unconstitutional."

The money game works both ways. When districts consider Bible curricula for $60 per student, tech companies could counter-offer more funding for STEM programs. Parent groups could push insurance companies to reassess liability premiums for districts with religious instruction, citing the documented 27-33% trauma statistics. Make religious adoption so financially risky that administrators choose secular options instead.

The most effective tactic could be exploiting their own rules. If these programs are truly about religious education, demand equal time for Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu curricula under the same policies. Force them to choose between actual religious freedom, meaning every faith getting equal time, or admitting they only want Christian instruction. Most will withdraw rather than manage multiple religious programs.

In 2023, Moms for Liberty lost 70% of their school board races when communities organized. School board elections average 5% turnout. A handful of committed residents can flip control.

These races matter so much.

The infrastructure is massive but visible. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 recommendations are becoming policy, Time Magazine found nearly two-thirds of Trump's executive actions mirror their proposals. Christopher Rufo at Manhattan Institute triggered cancellation of $226 million in education grants by calling them "left-wing" on social media. American Federation for Children spent $9 million electing candidates after getting $2.5 million from the DeVos family. They helped pass Texas's $1 billion voucher program, the largest in American history.

They're not subtle because they don't think anyone will stop them.

Every extreme lesson plan is evidence for a lawsuit. Every federal precedent they lose becomes permanent. Every school board meeting is a chance to read their own materials aloud until they squirm.

The question isn't whether this is happening. The data proves conservatives are systematically indoctrinating children while projecting that accusation onto others. The question is what we'll do about it.

The 52 Oklahoma superintendents showed it's possible to say no even when your job is threatened. They understood something the rest of us need to learn: when someone's indoctrinating children, you don't debate. You stop them.

Your school board probably meets monthly. The next election might have single-digit turnout. The Christian nationalists are counting on your absence.

Prove them wrong.

If you found this article worthwhile, check out my latest book, “Conservatism: America’s Empathy Disorder”

https://a.co/d/huE67KE