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Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is still desperately trying to get bibles into every public school classroom in the state despite opposition from damn near everyone, including school officials, church/state separation advocates, and even his fellow MAGA Republicans.
His latest grift is teaming up with Donald Trump-loving singer Lee Greenwood to override the Republicans who won’t give him the millions of dollars he needs to shove Jesus in every students’ face.
In case you missed what this was all about, back in October, Walters announced his plans to spend $6,000,000 on New King James Version bibles for teachers across the state. (His office had budgeted $3 million already and he was requesting another $3 million from legislators in their upcoming budget.)
Bear in mind that Oklahoma only has about 43,000 public school teachers, most of whom don’t teach classes that would need a Bible under Walters’ own plans, and that even if you bought a copy of the book for every single one of them, it would come out to $139.53 per Bible. A complete waste of money.
As if the goal wasn’t clear enough at the time, Walters later said the bibles had to be the King James Version (“for historical accuracy”); include text of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Bill of Rights; and be bound in leather or “leather-like material” for durability.
All of those things were included in the (already-printed) Trump Bibles… along with the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
In short, Walters made it sound like he found a “neutral” way to send Trump his share of over $3 million in taxpayer dollars while simultaneously putting bibles in public schools.
It was all extremely stupid, especially when you consider all that material is already available online for free. Walters’ requirements made no sense, financially or academically. Even Gov. Kevin Stitt, hardly a liberal, said recently that the whole charade was a gigantic waste of money.
After backlash to Walters’ plan—including superintendents rejecting the idea and an ongoing lawsuit to prevent the plan from being enacted—he backed off a little bit, though he later bought 500 Trump bibles for use specifically in Advanced Placement Government classes.
But last week, he suffered his greatest defeat to date.
When the Senate Education Appropriations subcommittee considered its new budget for the Oklahoma State Department of Education on Wednesday, Walters’ request for $3 million for bibles was nowhere to be found.
They didn’t even really talk about it. The proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget just won’t include that item.
“There’s not enough money to set aside for the $3 million if it’s going to end up in a big lawsuit, or perpetuate a lawsuit,” [Democratic State Senator Mary] Boren said. “It’s really, sincerely, not a priority of Oklahomans. Oklahomans are very familiar with the Bible. They’re very dutiful in picking their pastor, youth group leaders and Sunday school teachers. When you really listen to people, they’re just not in favor of having the government involved in that.
…
The lawmaker says that’s why Senate Education subcommittee members decided to prioritize other things in their proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget instead, like teaching kids math and making sure maternity pay is covered.
In response to that snub, Walters announced that he’ll be partnering with Greenwood to get those bibles in the classrooms anyway… by urging people to donate money for overpriced “God Bless the USA” Bibles (minus the Trump stamp of approval) so that they can be “donated to the State of Oklahoma Department of Education.” It’s part of Walters’ “Bibles Back in School” campaign.
His announcement falsely says the Oklahoma Legislature “stripped all funding away from getting Bibles back into the classroom” when the truth is they just never agreed to give Walters that money. (It’s not theft when you never had it in the first place!) Then it urges people to visit BiblesforOklahoma.com—which redirects to Greenwood’s website—so anyone can make a purchase. It’s like those commercials urging viewers to symbolically adopt an endangered elephant in a foreign country—you won’t get anything in return but maybe the symbolism helps you feel better.
Walters insists in his letter this he is not promoting religion, which would be illegal, but rather endorsing “the historical and secular significance of the Bible in all areas of education.” (It’s neither historical nor secular.)
None of this fixes his problems. Even if his office raised enough money to buy all those Bibles, getting them into classrooms would still be illegal for all the reasons that have already been discussed. The lawsuits won’t go away. School districts still aren’t on board.
Greenwood hasn’t said much about this initiative himself outside of several tweets promoting the same grift… including once right after promoting a different grift involving a supposedly collectible “God Bless the USA” coin:
That seems about right. It’s all about getting gullible Christians to waste their money on crap no one needs, with a portion of sales benefitting the least deserving people.
What happens if Walters raises $3 million but can’t get approval to get the books in classrooms? Who knows. I feel confident that money won’t be going to charity.
This also reeks of desperation. The “God Bless the USA” Bible that Greenwood is pushing was first advertised in 2021, slated for publication on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It was $49.99 at the time—but then Trump’s endorsement jacked up the price and presumably gave him a cut of the proceeds. I would guess so many Bibles were printed and unsold, sitting in a warehouse somewhere, that the publishers were desperate to unload them in any way possible. Trump’s endorsement? Check. Ryan Walters’ grift? Why not. It’s all ways to make money on a product no one needs because the contents are freely available online.
Maybe the bigger story here isn’t even Walters’ latest attempt to push the Bible in schools. It’s how even Republicans in Oklahoma are getting sick of this guy and ignoring his pathetic attempts to merge public education with their religion. You don’t have to “hand it to them” under any circumstances—Republicans have done plenty of damage in the state in ways that have nothing to do with Walters—but on this issue, even they’re tired of Walters’ constant need for attention and admiration from the most extreme elements of their conservative Christian base,
By the way, Oklahoma ranks near the bottom (49!) of the worst states in the country when it comes to education. Walters will not rest until it’s dead last.
