An Oklahoma Senate committee passed a trio of measures Monday aimed at making the phrase "In God We Trust" more prominent in the state.
Two of those bills call for a poster or framed image of the national motto to be displayed in every publicly funded facility in the state — including every classroom — though they would have to be paid for with private dollars. Sen. Kay Floyd asked what will happen when the displays prompt young students to ask their teachers about God.
"My concern is that we are asking teachers to violate certain laws by discussing religion with their students," Floyd said.
Sen. David Holt asked Sen. Wayne Shaw about his priorities with Senate Bill 1016.
"I mean, isn’t it – wouldn’t they rather have a raise than direction on how to decorate their classroom?" Holt said.
"This would have no impact on a raise one way or the other," Shaw said.
"Well, aren’t we spending valuable minutes that we should be thinking about a raise or something else that would help our education system rather than determining what their classroom decorations would be?"
Senate Bills 1016 and 1378 — authored by Sen. Nathan Dahm and which, along with the national motto, calls for displays of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution — passed out of the Senate General Government Committee on 6–4 votes.
Dahm also wants the national motto prominently displayed in the Oklahoma capitol. Dahm said he’s already consulted contractors working on the capitol restoration project about how much it would cost to inscribe "In God We Trust" inside the capitol visitor center.
"They said that the cost for this is negligible, it’s easily something that can be incorporated into the budget, so there wouldn’t be, really, any additional cost with this as we proceed forward," Dahm said.
Senate Bill 1350 calls for the inscription to be similar to the one in the United States Capitol tourist information center. The general government committee approved the bill 10–0.
