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OKLAHOMA CITY 鈥� An Oklahoma lawmaker says he hopes new House leadership will support a better outcome for his resurrected bill to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, has refiled the bill after it failed last year. would require a poster or a framed copy of the Ten Commandments to be posted in a conspicuous place in every public school classroom in Oklahoma, a state where the .

鈥淭he Ten Commandments is one of our founding documents,鈥� Olsen said. 鈥淚t was integral and central to the life of the founders and to our people in general during the founding of the nation, and for us to give our children an honest history of how things really were, I think that needs to be included.鈥�

Louisiana requiring school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. Enforcement of the law is blocked in five Louisiana school districts after a .

In 2015, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the removal of a statue of the Ten Commandments from the state Capitol, finding it a violation of the state Constitution. A year later, Oklahoma voters upheld the state Constitution鈥檚 prohibition against spending public funds for religious purposes.

Despite the Louisiana ruling and past decisions in Oklahoma, Olsen said he believes his bill has a viable legal future in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The Court in 2022 of a high school football coach praying with players at games. In doing so, the Court abandoned its long-standing , which it had used to measure compliance with the First Amendment and church-state separation.

Olsen鈥檚 bill will have to gain significantly more traction than it did last year for it to become law in Oklahoma.

His previous bill died early in the 2024 legislative session after it failed to get an initial hearing in a House committee on education appropriations. The panel鈥檚 chairperson who declined to hear the bill, Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, is one of several leading House Republicans who are no longer in office because of term limits.

Olsen said he is 鈥渃autiously optimistic鈥� that new House leaders will be supportive.

McBride鈥檚 successor at the head of the education appropriations committee, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, said it would be premature to comment on whether he would give the bill a hearing. He said he hasn鈥檛 read the legislation nor has it been assigned yet to a committee for review.

Oklahoma鈥檚 top education official, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, advocated for the legislation last year. Walters called the Ten Commandments a 鈥渇ounding document of our country鈥� and an 鈥渋mportant historical precedent.鈥�

Since then, Walters in every classroom and . Several district leaders have said they won鈥檛 comply, and a .

Walters鈥� administration of Lee Greenwood鈥檚 God Bless the USA Bible, which the state superintendent said he would place in AP government classrooms. He also that include 40 references to the Bible.

鈥淭he breakdown in classroom discipline over the past 40 years is in no small measure due to the elimination of the Ten Commandments as guideposts for student behavior,鈥� Walters said about Olsen鈥檚 bill last year. 鈥淚 will continue to fight against state-sponsored atheism that has caused society to go downhill.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: [email protected].

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