Oklahoma's controversial plan to mandate Bibles in public schools has raised new ethics questions.
Catch up: State Superintendent Ryan Walters ordered school districts to begin using the Bible in their Grades 5-12 curriculum; he also mandated the text must be in every public classroom. The move has sparked protests from civil rights groups and lawsuits alleging it violates the U.S. Constitution; some districts have also pushed back.
The latest: Oklahoma's Department of Education is taking bids for a $3M contract to buy 55K Bibles. Walters is now facing allegations of establishing extremely rigid requirements so that only Bibles with ties to former President Donald Trump could match the criteria. The state is specifying a King James version of the Bible that also contains several U.S. government documents such as the Declaration of Independence -- all overlap with the Trump-endorsed God Bless the USA Bible sold by singer Lee Greenwood.
Big picture: Walters is a Trump supporter; the state rejected claims of impropriety with the bidding process, but several experts said it may violate state law. Beyond the order's constitutionality, there are also questions of whether Walters violated state law. Trump reportedly earned $300K in royalties for endorsing Greenwood's Bible while Walters is one of several state officials who have pushed the line on separation of church and state with laws involving religious texts in schools.
