Ohio now has a ‘Display the Ten Commandments in Public Schools’ bill; First hearing to be held next week

A first hearing will be held on Tuesday for SB 34, a bill that opens the door for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in Ohio’s public school classrooms and to erect monuments to them on public school grounds. 

Sponsored by Ohio Sen. Terry Johnson (R-McDermott), the Historical Educational Displays Act mandates that, beginning July 1, 2026, all Ohio school boards must select at least one of the following historical educational documents to display in every classroom:

• The Ten Commandments
• The Mayflower Compact
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Northwest Ordinance
• The mottoes of the United States and Ohio
• The Magna Carta
• The Bill of Rights
• The United States Constitution
• The Articles of Confederation

All displays must be “reasonably visible” and accompanied by a description of the documents’ historical importance. 

Additionally, the bill allows schools to erect “a monument or other marker inscribed with one or more of the historical educational documents” listed above. 

SB 34 specifies that boards of education do not need to spend their own funds on these displays, but can accept donations for the displays themselves or the funds needed for the displays. 

The bill puts no restrictions on the entities donating those funds or displays – be they churches or the anti-LGBTQ+ Center for Christian Virtue – but does give boards the power to refuse donations that come with limitations or conditions attached.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham that a Kentucky law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in each public school classroom violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature.”  

In 2024, legislators in Louisiana passed SB 71 to require schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The law took effect on January 1, but has been blocked in five K-12 school districts as a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality works its way through the courts. 

The Ohio bill seemingly skirts the Stone v. Graham precedent by placing the Ten Commandments on a list of historic documents from which schools can choose.

In advance of the first hearing of the bill in the Senate Education committee next week, opponents of the bill are voicing their dissent. 

Christina Collins, executive director of Honesty for Ohio Education, said that students deserve an education that is “balanced, inclusive, and free from government overreach” and that SB 34 undermines those values.

“This bill further opens the door to political interference in our classrooms, continuing to strip away local control,” Collins said. “Instead of imposing more mandates, we should empower local school districts to use displays that reflect the needs of their diverse communities. Our students and school communities need our lawmakers to return their focus to policies that enhance student learning without political agendas.” 

Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, executive director of LOVEboldly, called the bill a “Christian nationalist wolf in sheep’s clothing” and said that the inclusion of the Ten Commandments in the list of historical documents represents “another attempt to inappropriately introduce Christian nationalism into Ohio’s public education.” 

“As Christians, LOVEboldly is deeply troubled by attempts to distort the words, ministry and model of Jesus to support anything less than the full inclusion of all people,” Huelskamp said. “If our legislators want to advance a truly Christian perspective, then they should be working to ensure accessible, diverse, inclusive and equitable public education for all students, regardless of the identities or zip codes of those students. We pray that the state legislature is moved to real action for all Ohio’s students.”  🔥

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