Governor backs bill to let State Board of Education members put items on agendas; discusses school choice and Bible app

The governor said he supports legislation that would allow members of the State Board of Education to place items on the board agenda, saying a board “is not really a board” if one member can block discussion.

“The board has the right to vote those up or down, but if nine people want something and one person is keeping that from even being talked about, I think that’s a problem,” the governor said. He identified the measure as coming from the House speaker and pro tem and called the change “good governance.”

The governor also discussed school choice and religious instruction in schools in response to questions about a reported Senate subcommittee recommendation and an email that, he said, indicated efforts to put Bibles into classrooms. He said his administration supports religious and private schooling options and highlighted that his administration approved the state’s first religious charter school.

“We love Christian schools and Catholic schools, and that’s why we passed the first ever, religious charter school,” the governor said. “I don’t think we should keep the government from keeping a parent from putting their values and letting and training their kids in what their values are.”

Reporters referenced ongoing audits of the State Department of Education; the governor did not provide new details about any audit timeline but discussed broader concerns about tracking state spending across large agencies.

He also praised an unrelated private-sector milestone: “Bobby Greenwald, friend of mine, huge, huge, Oklahoman that has a billion downloads. We’re gonna have a huge celebration,” the governor said in reference to the Bible app, which he said many people in the state use.

The governor’s comments outlined support for proposed board agenda changes and for expanded school choice; he did not describe specific statutory language or say whether any particular bill had reached his desk.