“Oklahoma’s state superintendent on Thursday directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, in the latest conservative push testing the boundaries between religious instruction and public education,” the New York Times reports.

“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he supports Louisiana’s new law mandating the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms and said he thinks the law will survive legal challenges,” The Hill reports.

Said Johnson: “I’m supportive of it, yeah. And I think it should pass court muster. I think there’s a number of states trying to look to do the same thing, and I don’t think it’s offensive in any way. I think it’s a positive thing.”

“The Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked on Tuesday what would have been the nation’s first religious charter school, delivering a setback to a conservative movement that has increasingly fought for public dollars to go toward religious education,” the New York Times reports.

“The case is likely to be appealed, potentially pushing it toward the U.S. Supreme Court, whose conservative majority has broadly embraced the role of religion in public life and signaled an openness to directing taxpayer money to religious schools.”

“Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday,” the AP reports.

“The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in ‘large, easily readable font’ be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.”

Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden’s plans to cancel student loan debt as “vile” and suggested that the program will be “rebuked” if he is elected, The Independent reports.

He later blamed student loan relief for a climbing federal budget deficit.

Rudy Giuliani said that in President Biden’s quest for a “dictatorship” he “took God out of schools and government to establish loyalty to only him,” the Michigan Advance reports.

“The Florida Board of Education approved several tweaks Wednesday to the state’s standards for teaching social studies, but left intact controversial pieces on Black history that sparked widespread backlash last year,” Politico reports.

“Florida’s new teaching standards include the same language that scored national blowback last year for requiring middle school students to learn ‘how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.'”

The Washington Monthly finds that the vast majority of protests over the war in Gaza are happening at elite colleges and universities.

The Colorado Republican Party is issuing a call to its members to pull their children from public school, saying Democrats are using schools to “turn more kids trans,” KUSA reports.

“More than one in 10 Americans with federal student loans have been approved for some measure of debt relief under President Joe Biden, the White House said, as it announced a new round of forgiveness,” Bloomberg reports.

Associated Press: “The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs.”

“When he gives the commencement address at Morehouse College, President Joe Biden will have his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war at a center of Black politics and culture,” the AP reports.

“Morehouse is located in Atlanta, the largest city in the swing state of Georgia, which Biden flipped from former President Donald Trump four years ago. Biden’s speech Sunday will come as he tries to make inroads with a key and symbolic constituency — young Black men — and repair the diverse coalition that elected him to the White House.”

“The announcement of the speech last month triggered peaceful protests and calls for the university administration to cancel over Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. Some students at Morehouse and other historically Black campuses in Atlanta say they vociferously oppose Biden and the decision to have him speak, mirroring the tension Biden faces in many communities of color and with young voters nationally.”

CNN: “Schools across the country are announcing teacher and staff layoffs as districts brace for the end of a pandemic aid package that delivered the largest one-time federal investment in K-12 education. The funds must be used by the end of September, creating a sharp funding cliff as schools also struggle with widespread enrollment declines and inflation.”

“After a meeting that lasted for hours, the Shenandoah County school board voted early Friday morning to restore the names of three Confederate officers to schools in the district,” the New York Times reports.

“With the vote, the district appears to be the first in the country to return Confederate names to schools that had removed them after the summer of 2020.”

Philip Bump: “Why is the simplest explanation of campus protests so hard to accept? Young people were sympathetic to Palestinians even before the war began. Why is that ignored?”