An Ohio Senate committee held a first hearing on Tuesday for SB 34, a bill that opens the door for public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and erect monuments to them on public school grounds.
The “Historical Educational Displays Act” mandates that, beginning July 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
Additionally, the bill allows schools to erect “a monument or other marker inscribed with one or more of the historical educational documents” listed above.
The hearing held in the Education Committee was solely testimony from the bill’s sponsor: Ohio Sen. Terry Johnson (R-McDermott).
Here are nine of the most striking quotes from Tuesday’s hearing.
1. “The reason for this bill is to expose our students to the documents which have, in America, served as the backbone of our legal and moral traditions as a people.”
–Sen. Johnson, invoking schools displaying moral traditions, an approach that Ohio Republicans last year repeatedly decried as being solely in the teaching domain of parents.
2. “In my mind, it has been inexcusable that more focus has not been shown towards these historic texts within the academic arena in our state, denying the vital legal and moral essence that our children need to thrive as good American citizens.”
-Sen. Johnson, invoking the teaching of morals again the very next sentence. Just two months ago, in pushing through the Parents’ Bill of Rights, Ohio Republicans repeatedly excoriated “nefarious teachers” who strayed from any topics other than the teaching of historical facts.
3. “The cost hopefully will be something that is donated by the public. I think there are plenty of organizations happy to donate these [displays/monuments] to the schools.”
–Sen. Johnson, responding to a cost-related question posed by Sen. Catherine Ingram (D-Cincinnati). SB 34 puts no restrictions on the entities donating funds or displays, be they churches or the anti-LGBTQ+ Center for Christian Virtue.
4. “Why are the Ten Commandments here? Why are they there amongst those documents?”
–Sen. Ingram, zeroing in on the clear outlier in the list of historical documents.
5. “The Ten Commandments, like the other documents, are foundational. They were front and center in the minds of our Founding Fathers and indeed all the way up until to the 1900s, these things were taught in the classroom. The question for me to anyone else is, ‘Why not?’ considering the prominence of these things in the formation of our country.”
-Sen. Johnson, trying to return classroom teaching to topics from the 1900s.
6. “You do know they used to put hot iron on the tongues of Baptists who used to say things that didn’t go along [with] Christianity? We’ve come a very long way since then.”
-Sen. Ingram, highlighting that some things have changed since the 1900s.
7. “We don’t want to be putting irons to anyone’s tongue and I don’t think any of that is going to happen if [the Ten Commandments] gets included.”
-Sen. Johnson, just to clarify.
8. “This isn’t about the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments is one document in the historical panoply.”
-Sen. Johnson, attempting to de-emphasize the clear outlier in the list of historical documents.
9. “If we’re talking about religions, atheism is a religion. You have to believe there is no God. And the school is full of atheism and we don’t mind that so much and I don’t really understand why. On the other hand, religion is not central to what we’re talking about [here]. The historical documents that gave birth to our nation and being able to trace that like breadcrumbs is what’s important.”
–Sen. Johnson veering off into his views on atheism – which no one had mentioned – before returning to his assertion that the Ten Commandments being included on the list had nothing to do with religion. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- To access contact information for members of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, click here.
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