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In an unusual move, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the Department of Education to provide an update.

Will the new state superintendent withdraw his predecessor’s edict to teach from the Bible and efforts to spend taxpayer money on Bibles and character manuals?

The Court gave Lindel Fields, who replaced Ryan Walters as superintendent this month, a couple of weeks to decide. But Fields didn’t wait.

On Wednesday, in a written statement, he said he has no plans to distribute Bibles or Biblical character education curriculum to classrooms. And his agency plans to file a motion to dismiss the legal challenge. Read more in my latest story for Oklahoma Watch.

Readers: Education Watch will be taking a break next week. Thanks for your understanding. In the meantime, please send story ideas, comments and questions via email.

— Jennifer Palmer

Recommended Reading

  • Oklahoma’s newest state education agency is asking the Legislature for an extra $3.4 million to secure the future of a popular online platform that provides dozens of Oklahoma school districts with Advanced Placement classes. [The Oklahoman]
  • Computer hacker and former college student Matthew Lane — who was a teenager when he carried out a massive cyberattack on education technology company PowerSchool — was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $14 million in restitution. [The 74]
  • Voters in 19 public school districts across the Oklahoma cast ballots for school bond packages Tuesday, with 15 districts seeing their projects approved and others heading back to the drawing board after measures failed. [NonDoc]

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