Oklahoma's Push for Bibles in Schools Comes With a Trump-Sized Price Tag
Ryan Walters' strict stipulations make it clear he’s steering Oklahoma schools to purchase Donald Trump’s Bibles at a hefty cost.
Former President Donald Trump's various financial ventures are rolling out faster than most casual observers can track, from relaunching $99 NFTs and debuting a new cryptocurrency platform to hawking six-figure watches. Trump's holiest hustle is the $60 "God Bless the USA" Bible, complete with the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
About 1,300 miles from Mar-a-Lago, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Trump loyalist Ryan Waters has been pushing biblical education in public schools. The Republican—and self-proclaimed "lifelong advocate of improving Oklahoma's education system"—declared in June that "every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible…and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom." This was followed by a memo stating: "Effective immediately, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum….Immediate and strict compliance is expected."
Walters has a history of injecting right-wing cultural politics into the public schools. In January, he drew bipartisan criticism for appointing Chaya Raichik—a 29-year-old former Brooklyn real estate agent who lives in Los Angeles, does not have children (in Oklahoma schools or any other schools), and spends her time harassing LGBTQ people from her LibsofTikTok X account—to the State Library Advisory Committee. In September 2023, Walters announced a partnership with PragerU, which is not a school but a conservative nonprofit media organization, boasting to a crowd in Tulsa: "We are continuing that MAGA agenda….We're gonna have PragerU in every school."
At September's Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting, Walters requested an additional $3 million (for a total of $6 million) to purchase New King James Version Bibles. But when bids opened last week for 55,000 bibles, the specs had changed. According to the request for proposal (RFP), "only the King James Version" qualifies, and it "must include copies of The United States Pledge of Allegiance, The U.S. Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and The U.S. Bill of Rights." Oh, and the Bible "must be bound in leather or leather-like material."
The Oklahoman reported on Friday, that none of the 2,900 Bibles carried by Mardel Christian Bookstore meet Walters' qualifications. But the Trump-endorsed "God Bless the USA" Bible fits the bill like a grift-lined glove. A second Bible that fits the RFP was also identified: the We the People Bible, endorsed by Donald Trump Jr., available for $90.
Beyond the obvious church-state issues, which are already working their way through the courts, there is some murky math here. The author and YouTuber Hemant Mehta (known online as the Friendly Atheist) has tracked Walters for years; he points out that the superintendent's request for $6 million to buy 55,000 Bibles breaks down to about $140 per Bible. (Oklahoma has only about 43,000 classroom teachers.)
"Walters thinks he has come up with a neutral way to send Trump his share of over $3 million of taxpayer money," Mehta said on YouTube. "And we know that because the requirements…make no sense financially or academically….The only way Walters could be more clear about what he wanted to do is if he demanded every copy of this Bible had a giant 'T' on the front cover, and even then he would say, 'No, this has nothing to do with Trump, that's just a cross.'"
Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson suspects that the RFP may violate state law. "It appears to me that this bid is anything but competitive," Edmondson told The Oklahoman. "The special binding and inclusion of government documents will exclude almost all bidders. If the bid specs exclude most bidders unnecessarily, I could consider that a violation."
It is unclear whether Oklahoma's current attorney general, Gentner Drummond, shares these concerns. But at least two dozen Oklahoma House Republicans have signed onto a letter calling for an investigation into Walters. The letter from state Rep. Mark McBride (R–Moore)—a professing Christian as well as the chair of the Subcommittee on Education—outlined several specific concerns, including Walters' failing to follow orders regarding public money for school security, and his refusal to provide information about how he was spending taxpayer dollars for his office's travel budget.
"To me, it's almost scary [that] he thinks that he has the power that he does," McBride told the Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR. "It's just tyranny….I don't necessarily have a total disagreement in everything he does, it's just the way he goes about it. And the way the people around him talk to legislators, the press, the public, and the demeaning nature of what they do."
Walters didn't want the media to have access to the meeting where he made this budget request. In September, KFOR and the Institute for Free Speech filed a motion against Walters and his press secretary, Dan Isett, noting that "journalists have been refused access to public State Board of Education meetings." A judge granted a temporary restraining order allowing members of the press to be present for the meeting.
Vendors have until Monday, October 14, to respond to the RFP with their bids.
