Oklahoma's Ryan Walters bought 500 Trump Bibles for AP Government classes

It's not just a waste of money. It doesn't make any sense.

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Just days after Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters canceled his request for bids to purchase 55,000 bibles for public school classrooms—perhaps because his plan to spend $3 million in taxpayer money on bibles Donald Trump endorsed and has a financial stake in appeared to be backfiring—he’s gone ahead and found a different way to suck up to the next president.

Walters announced that he had purchased 500 Trump bibles for use in Advanced Placement Government classes.

I'm excited to announce today that Oklahoma is the first state to bring the Bible back to the classroom.

Today, we purchased over 500 Bibles that will be in the AP Government classrooms across the state. Bible just like this. We have the Bible, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights. These are foundational documents in our nation's history. Our kids have to understand the role the Bible played in influencing American history.

It's very clear that the radical left has driven the Bible out of the classroom, which leads to a lack of understanding of American history. We will not stop until we’ve brought the Bible back to every classroom in the state.

This is what happens when you’re more interested in sucking up to Trump in order to become his next Secretary of Education than doing anything to actually help Oklahoma students...

It also confirms how his desire to purchase bibles was really an attempt to purchase Trump bibles. His office kept rejecting that notion when they were confronted about it, claiming the bidding process was open to anybody and they totally weren’t tailoring their proposal to the Trump people… and here is Walters, holding up the Trump Bible, practically admitting this is what he always had in mind. He doesn’t even have to say Trump’s name for people to know he’s promoting the version of the book that’s been peddled to the most gullible MAGA cult members in the country.

There are a few obvious questions stemming from that video: Who’s “we”? Who purchased those books? Trump bibles cost $59.99 plus shipping, which means Walters spent at least $30,000 on the books. Is that coming from his office’s budget? He didn’t say.

Even if he did send those books to AP Government teachers across the state, it’s not like they have to use them. There’s no requirement that teachers have to use the Bible in the classroom, even though Walters has tried to do exactly that, many superintendents have rejected the idea, and there’s an ongoing lawsuit to prevent Walters’ plan from being enacted.

So this is all for show. Walters isn’t fixing anything that’s broken. This is nothing more than a campaign video for himself, to keep his face on Trump’s mind so that Trump chooses him for the Department of Education over other right-wing propagandists like Christopher Rufo.

The whole ploy is even more ridiculous when you consider Walters is pushing this book in AP Government classrooms. For those who aren’t aware, AP classes are offered in many high schools as a way for students to earn possible college credit based on a single test at the end of the school year. Those classes are also meant to introduce kids to college-level rigor.

AP classes are heavily regimented in the sense that you have to teach very specific things in a short amount of time. While teachers obviously have leeway in how they teach the material, they don’t have much flexibility when it comes to what they teach. Ask AP teachers how much additional material they can pack into their lesson plans and they’ll inevitably laugh in your face. (In my past life as a teacher, I taught AP Statistics. For students, it was like drinking water through a fire hose. For me, if I didn’t get through a day’s worth of material, it was chaos trying to make up for lost time the rest of the week.)

More to the point: In the official AP U.S. Government curriculum (written by the College Board on the advice of experts in the field), there’s no room for David Barton-esque misinformation. Using the Trump Bible in that class, in other words, would literally be a waste of everyone’s time because it won’t be on the test students take at the end of the year. Which means it would be a waste of time for these teachers specifically to use the book in their classes.

That’s why, in all the articles describing Walters’ announcement, you’ll never see actual AP Government teachers endorsing his plan. They don’t need an outsider telling them how to teach their classes. They sure as hell don’t need Walters deliberately trying to sabotage their carefully crafted lessons.

That’s how you know this is all for show. Walters either doesn’t know or doesn’t care how AP classes work. His only goal is to combine his face, Trump’s product, and the idea of education in as many ways as possible.

Students are an afterthought. They don’t factor into his equation at all.

In his video announcement, there was also a little coffee mug on his desk. It said, “If you want peace, prepare for war.” That’s an ominous phrase to be parroted by a state education leader who sees everything, including kids, as part of a larger battle with theological implications.

Meanwhile, by one measure, Oklahoma ranks near the bottom (49!) of the worst states in the country when it comes to education. Ryan Walters is determined to make sure his state ends up as the lowest on the list. If he gets to run the nation’s education system, every state could soon be equally awful.

In other news this week, Walters also sent every public school superintendent in the state a video in which he praised Trump and delivered a Christian prayer… with a demand that the schools play the video for students and send it along to their parents.

According to one school district, the request was quickly rescinded… then issued again. But many superintendents, used to Walters’ idiotic pro-Christian games by now, just refused to participate.

… within 45 minutes of the initial email, [Edmond Public Schools] received a recall notice from the Oklahoma Department of Education, indicating that Walters was attempting to retract the message, according to the district’s spokesperson. As a result, the district decided not to show the video to students despite receiving several inquiries from parents asking if they could opt out of the viewing.

Jenks Public Schools also said that they do not plan to play the video for students at this time.

Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller responded to the video by saying that his district has no plans of showing the video to students. He confirmed that his district also received the recall notification but said the original video and email were sent again with no changes.

This is what happens when you allow spineless Republicans with no moral principles to run your government.

Not only can Walters keep getting away with this, the members of his own party have no ability to call this out. It’s also a reminder of what Christian privilege looks like (all while the same Christians pretend they’re victims of persecution).

Megachurch pastors across Oklahoma, by and large, also refuse to condemn what Walters is doing because they think public schools ought to be a vehicle to push their mythology on kids rather than a place to educate them. They’re just as responsible for Walters’ actions as the Republicans who sit in silence while he destroys the state.

Incidentally, the Freedom From Religion Foundation says they’re “aware of this video and are working to keep it out of Oklahoma’s schools.”

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