Oklahoma schools chief seeks donations to put Bibles in classrooms

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma's top education official said he's teaming with country music singer Lee Greenwood in seeking donations to get $59.99 leather-bound “God Bless the USA” Bibles into classrooms throughout the state, after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund the effort.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters said this week that he's partnering with Greenwood to help ensure the Bibles, which have been endorsed by President Donald Trump, get to Oklahoma schools.

“The Bible is indispensable in understanding the development of Western civilization and American exceptionalism, history, and all similar subjects,” Walters said in a statement. “The ongoing attempts to remove it from our classrooms is an attack on the foundation of our country.”

Walters' push to require public schools to begin incorporating the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12 led to a lawsuit from a group of public school parents and teachers. Many schools simply ignored the mandate.

The directive is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative-led states to target public schools. Louisiana has required them to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, while others are under pressure to teach the Bible and ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked an attempt by the state to have the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country — a case that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A former public school teacher who was elected to his post in 2022, Walters ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms.

There are signs that even his Republican colleagues are growing tired of Walters' divisive brand of politics. Besides the legislative committee denying Walters' $3 million request to pay for the Bibles, Gov. Kevin Stitt recently rejected Walters' proposal to require schools to collect the immigration status of children.

When asked this week about Walters' Bible mandate, Stitt mentioned a free, popular Bible app created by Oklahoma pastor Bobby Gruenewald, and said: “I’m sure most kids have the Bible app on their phone."