These states are under fire over spending millions of taxpayer dollars to push religion in schools

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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.

Organizations that oppose the use of public funds on religious instruction or religious institutions say that it violates church-state separation and that teaching the Bible in public schools could send students harmful messages that reinforce gender stereotypes, demonize the LGBTQ+ community, justify slavery and racism and exclude religious minority groups. They also object to taxpayer monies being used on private schools because these institutions can refuse to admit marginalized students, such as those with disabilities, learning differences or LGBTQ+ parents.

“Oklahoma taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll Superintendent Walters’ Christian nationalist agenda,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, in a statement. “His latest scheme — to mandate use of the Bible in Oklahoma public school curriculum — is a transparent, unlawful effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students. Not on our watch. Public schools are not Sunday schools.”

A recent 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll found that 61 percent of registered voters favor public schools teaching Judeo-Christian values such as the Ten Commandments, while 38 percent object to such instruction. For nonbinary registered voters, the opposite is true, with just 24 percent backing this instruction and 76 percent disapproving. The poll also found that 60 percent of registered voters support allowing families to use taxpayer funds to attend private or religious schools, while 39 percent oppose. Only 28 percent of nonbinary registered voters endorse this practice, often described as school vouchers , while 69 percent object.

Walters ordered school districts to begin teaching the Bible after the Oklahoma Supreme Court in June blocked the state from opening what would have been the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school. Lawyers for that school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, sought to appeal that decision with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. Walters is now seeking bids from companies that can outfit the state’s public school classrooms with 55,000 King James Version Bibles.

Initially, eligible Bibles needed to include reprints of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance —  features not typically found in the books. Singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA Bible,” which retails for $60, does meet these specifications and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who will reportedly receive royalties from the project. After public outcry that the Oklahoma Department of Education requirements were simply to financially benefit Trump, the agency on Monday changed the qualifications for Bibles so that publishers do not have to combine patriotic materials and scripture in one book.

In addition to their requests to review records related to Oklahoma spending on Bibles for public schools, civil rights groups have asked to see records related to Walters’ initial call for school districts to use the Bible “as an instructional support into the curriculum” for grades 5-12 and his announcement of revisions to the social studies standards to “incorporate the introduction of the Bible as an instructional resource.”

In Ohio, Americans United lawyers have cautioned officials that using public grant funding to build or repair the facilities of private religious schools violates religious freedom protections because it forces taxpayers to cover religious instruction.

“This is all part of the Christian nationalist playbook for undermining our public education system: Divert public money to private religious schools while imposing their religious beliefs on public schoolchildren,” Laser said in a statement. “Rather than funding private religious schools that can discriminate and indoctrinate, Ohio should focus on providing adequate resources to public schools that welcome and serve all families. Public funds belong in public schools.”

At least eight religious schools in Ohio have received public grant funding for construction purposes, according to Americans United. The organization is asking the state to respond to its records request related to these grants by October 18. It gave Oklahoma an October 17 deadline to do the same regarding the state’s records on Bible expenditures.

In Texas, the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a nonprofit that advocates for science, secularism and critical thinking, is urging the superintendents of the largest school districts not to use curriculum materials developed by the Texas Education Agency that incorporate Bible stories and Christianity into K–5 instruction. The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will vote to approve or reject these instructional materials in November. Critics of the materials, which include pastors, parents, educators and civil liberties groups, have said that they advance a Christian nationalist platform, while the Texas Education Agency maintains that Biblical narratives are included because of the “literary and historical value of the content.” Although Texas public schools aren’t mandated to use the materials approved by the SBOE, those that do will get up to $60 per pupil.

“A proper, secular education delivered by a public school emphasizes science, math, grammar, literature, civics, and the like,” Azhar Majeed, CFI’s director of government affairs, stated in an October 3 letter to Texas’ 50 largest school districts. “It does not promote religious texts — whether those be the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, or anything else.”

SurveyMonkey conducted this poll online from August 26 through September 4 among a national sample of 20,762 adults, including 18,123 registered voters, with a modeled error estimate of plus or minus 1.0 percentage points.