Ryan Walters (barely) revises proposal to spend taxpayer money on Trump Bibles

He still wants to buy Trump Bibles. He just doesn't want anyone to notice.

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I wrote last week about how Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is planning to spend at least $3,000,000 on King James Version bibles for teachers across the state.

Ryan Walters, about to say something thoughtless (screenshot via Facebook)

I won’t rehash everything but the gist of the story was that his office had released a formal request for publishers to bid on providing the books to school districts across the state. (In theory, the publisher who says it can do the job for the least amount of money would get the contract.)

The problem with the “Request for Proposal” (RFP) was that all the requirements described the $59.99 (plus shipping) Trump Bible just perfectly... while effectively shutting out all the competition.

That’s because Walters said he needed 55,000 Bibles within two weeks—which basically meant the books had to be printed and ready to go.

They also needed to include the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Bill of Rights. All of which were already included in the (already-printed) Trump Bibles.

And, for some reason, these books had to be “bound in leather” or something similar for the sake of “durability.”

When reporters at Oklahoma Watch asked one of the largest Christian booksellers in the country if they carried anything matching what Walters wanted, the response was an unequivocal no.

A salesperson at Mardel Christian & Education searched, and though they carry 2,900 Bibles, none fit the parameters. 

It was clear Walters just wanted to give Trump whatever share of money he’d get from the state of Oklahoma buying his Bibles. It was so egregious a grift that even a former Oklahoma Attorney General said the request for proposals might violate state law. The backlash was fierce enough that it warranted national headlines.

Walters loves attention, but even Christians appeared to be balking at this proposal. It was bad enough this guy wanted to purchase Bibles for school, but using tax dollars to buy the Trump Bible for every classroom? There was nothing subtle about the Christian Nationalism ploy.

So on Monday, the Request for Proposal was amended.

First, the new deadline for applications was extended by one week, to October 21, giving publishers a total of three weeks to apply.

That still falls short of the traditional four weeks you’d see with similar proposals. The short window only makes sense if you’re waiting for one company to send in a bid proposal. Simply put, publishers who are starting from scratch don’t have enough time to assess costs, submit an application, and get to work. This is little more than window dressing, a way to suggest other publishers can apply without giving them the actual time they need to do so.

The bigger change is that the additional documents—like the U.S. Constitution—are no longer mandatory inside the books. But that, too, isn’t really a change because of how it’s worded in the amended RFP.

The new application says those documents “can be bound together or separately.” That makes it sound like a publisher that already has KJV Bibles lying around can just print out the “patriotic” documents, staple them together, and hand them out to the schools.

But that’s not the case. Section 2.7 says those additional documents “must also be bound in durable material.” In other words, publishers would have to create a brand new book—with a sturdy cover—that’s only a few pages long. It’s a completely pointless exercise, especially when you consider that all those documents, just like the KJV translation, are available online for free.

So why bother making this change? Because it looks like you’re opening the door to non-Trump Bibles… before immediately shutting the door on that possibility by adding a different meaningless requirement.

The end result is that the Trump Bibles are still the only viable option for the schools, and Walters has every intention of spending over $3 million in taxpayer money on them.

According to the Associated Press, these changes were intended to stop the critics:

Walters’ spokesperson, Dan Issett, said in a statement that the changes to the “request for proposal,” or RFP, were suggested by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which issues the requests and were agreed to by Walters.

“Unfortunately, there have been false reports that have been repeated by numerous, supposedly credible, news organizations that the state’s RFP was catered to one specific organization,” Issett said, noting that tailoring the request so that only one manufacturer’s Bible would qualify would be illegal.

Christa Helfrey, a spokesperson for OMES, said the changes were made to the request to try to save taxpayer money.

“OMES worked with OSDE to amend the solicitation to provide the listed resources at a much better value to Oklahomans,” Helfrey said.

Bull. Shit.

The RFP did cater to “one specific organization”: It was tailor-made for the Trump Bibles. The revised version still caters to the exact same people.

The idea that the amended request helps save taxpayer money, though, is an even bigger lie. While it theoretically opens the door to other publishers, the meaningless hurdles are still in place and a new one was just added to shut most companies out.

Want to save money? Then don’t spend money on a Bible translation and historical documents that are already free to access online. Teachers can, and do, already use that material if they need to. No one is asking for these books. There’s a reason so many superintendents have said they have no intention of participating in Walters’ charade.

Oklahoma is among the worst states in the country when it comes to education and Ryan Walters has every intention on dragging the state to the very bottom of the list.

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