Okla. is buying schools 55,000 Bibles. Specs match the $60 Trump Bible.

In March, Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, endorsed the “God Bless the USA Bible,” and he earns money from sales through a licensing agreement.

Oklahoma stirred controversy this year when Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters announced that all of the state’s public schools would be required to teach the Bible. Walters has also pushed schools to post the Ten Commandments and fought for a state-funded Catholic charter school, a move found unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

Walters has called the Bible a “necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country” and has mandated that every school in the state teach it starting this year. Some school districts have said they won’t go along, and the state Supreme Court ruled this summer that decisions about content — in that case, about library books — shall be made locally. But Walters has pressed ahead, this week publishing a request for proposals to supply the state with Bibles for every Oklahoma school.

Walters has asked the state legislature for $3 million to buy Bibles, though he also has said he has $3 million already in his agency’s coffers available for buying Bibles. Purchasing 55,000 Trump-endorsed Bibles at the retail rate of $60 would cost $3.3 million.

Dan Isett, a spokesman for the state education agency, did not address whether the specifications of the notice were written to favor the Trump-endorsed version.

“Superintendent Walters has committed the agency to an open and transparent RFP process, consistent with the norms for state procurement, that will be adequate to meet the needs of Oklahoma classrooms,” Isett said in an email. “There are hundreds of Bible publishers and we expect a robust competition for this proposal.”

The requirements for the Bibles, according to bid documents, include that they be the King James version and that they have the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They must not contain “study guides, publisher narration or additional commentary.” The requirement that the books be bound by leather (or a “leather-like” material), the posting says, is for “durability,” though few if any other school books are leather-bound.

Walters has at times said the Bible should be in every classroom — and at other times said it should only be used in meeting academic standards for history or literature. Oklahoma Watch, in a story published by the Oklahoman, noted that while he is ordering 55,000 copies of the Bible, there are only 43,000 classroom teachers in the state, and only a slice of them teach history or literature.

Critics who have said Walters is inappropriately pushing Christianity into public schools now say he’s trying to line Trump’s pockets, perhaps with an eye toward a job in Trump’s administration if he wins the election in November.

“Pretty clear it’s designed to buy Trump Bibles,” state Rep. John Waldron (D) said in an interview. He said it would be a crime if the proposal was proved to have been written for a specific bidder. Regardless, he said, there are political benefits for Walters helping Trump to make money. “That buys him access on the national stage.”

Michelle Boorstein contributed to this report.