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Placing Bibles in all Oklahoma public school classrooms hasn’t been cheap. The effort led by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters comes with a $3 million price tag — or at least that’s how much money the state recently approved for the purchase in its 2025-’26 budget. That figure doesn’t include the $3 million the state already set aside to stock classrooms with the religious texts this school year.
The millions the state has budgeted to expose public school students to scripture has prompted four civil rights groups — Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation and Freedom From Religion Foundation — to ask that the Oklahoma State Department of Education hand over all records related to its expenditures on Bibles.
Americans United announced the records request on October 3, the same day it said that it was seeking records from the Ohio Office of Budget and Management to examine that state’s reported funding of at least $3 million for building and repairs at private religious schools.