Ryan Walters (politician)

Ryan Walters (born May 23, 1985) is an American politician who has served as the elected Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2023 and who served as the appointed Oklahoma Secretary of Education between September 2020 and April 2023.

A member of the Republican Party, he has been a vocal critic of "critical race theory", LGBT students' rights, and teachers' unions in Oklahoma and has been described as "the state's top culture warrior".

During his tenure, he has successfully campaigned for the removal of Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist and supported the conservative political organization Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as an "extremist" and "antigovernment" group. Since February 2024, Walters has been criticized for his appointment of Chaya Raichik to the Oklahoma Library Advisory Board and stances on transgender youth and students following his response to the death of Nex Benedict.

Early life and career

Ryan Walters was born May 23, 1985. His father was a bank executive while his mother worked at Eastern Oklahoma State College. They both attended Harding University and are members of the North Town Church of Christ, where his father serves as a minister and his mother serves as the elementary education director.

Walters grew up in McAlester, Oklahoma and attended Harding University before returning to teach at McAlester High School. He was a McAlester Teacher of the Year and finalist for the 2016 State Teacher of the Year. In 2018, Walters met future governor Kevin Stitt at a tennis tournament and the two became friends. Later that year, he published three articles in the conservative magazine The Federalist. He was also appointed to the Oklahoma Community Service Commission in 2018 by Governor Mary Fallin and Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability in 2019 by Governor Kevin Stitt. He resigned from McAlester Public Schools in 2019.

On May 29, 2019, Walters was appointed as the Executive Director of Oklahoma Achieves, a nonprofit education organization created by the State Chamber of Oklahoma. By March 2020, Oklahoma Achieves transitioned into an independent nonprofit, Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, with Walters as its executive director. Walters resigned from his position at Every Kid Counts Oklahoma the week before his inauguration as Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Oklahoma Secretary of Education

On September 10, 2020, Governor Kevin Stitt nominated Ryan Walters to be Oklahoma Secretary of Education.

On May 2, 2022, The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch reported on a United States Department of Education report which found the Bridge the Gap program Walters oversaw was implemented with few safeguards to prevent fraud or abuse and that federal auditors were investigating the distribution of COVID-19 relief money through the program.

On May 11, Oklahoma House of Representatives Democrats called on Governor Stitt to call for Walters resignation. The Governor's office responded "Secretary Walters is doing a great job fighting for parents' right to be in charge of their child's education and advocating for funding students, not government-controlled systems."

Later in May, Oklahoma newspapers reported that while working as Secretary of Education, Walters remained Executive Director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, an Oklahoma education non-profit. Walters was paid approximately $120,000 a year by Every Kid Counts Oklahoma compared to his state salary of $40,000. The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch reported that Every Kid Counts Oklahoma was funded by national school privatization advocates and charter school expansion advocates, such as the Walton Family Foundation and another group founded by Charles Koch.

In August 2023, The Oklahoman reported that the state auditor, Cindy Byrd, found, through a state audit that included the Bridge the Gap program, that $1.7 million was spent on various non-educational items such as kitchen appliances, power tools, furniture, and entertainment. The Bridge the Gap program was overseen by Walters at the time of the misappropriation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the misspending of federal funds meant to help Oklahoma children learn at home during the pandemic as part of the $39.9 million Governor's Emergency Education Relief, or GEER, grant.

He was reappointed by Governor Kevin Stitt as Oklahoma Secretary of Education in 2023. On April 11, 2023, Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Katherine Curry to replace Walters after his reappointment confirmation stalled in the Oklahoma Senate after attorney general Gentner Drummond told lawmakers it was illegal for him to serve as both Secretary of Education and State Superintendent simultaneously.

State Superintendent

2022 campaign

Walters ran for Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2022 as one of four Republican candidates in a June primary alongside John Cox, William Crozier, and April Grace. He was endorsed in the primary by Governor Kevin Stitt and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He advanced to an August run-off alongside April Grace, which he won with 53% of the vote. While campaigning, Walters promulgated the litter boxes in schools hoax. He defeated the Democratic Party's nominee, Jena Nelson, in the general election. After the campaign, Walters was fined for 14 violations of state campaign finance ethics rules. He contested 13 of the violations.

Tenure

One of Walters's first acts as State Superintendent was to instruct the Oklahoma Department of Education to revoke the teaching licenses of two Oklahoma teachers who had been critical of HB-1775, a law that limits teaching concepts around race and gender.

In April 2023, the Oklahoma Attorney General's office under Gentner Drummond "issued an opinion saying the law does not give the State Board of Education the ability to make administrative rules without proper direction from the state Legislature", meaning Walters's "rules regarding pornography in library books, sex education, parents rights and inappropriate materials" were unenforceable. Drummond also said he was not "taking a stance" on Walters's rules. Ryan Kiesel, a civil rights attorney and political consultant, said in a KOSU story that, after asking Walters to show them the pornographic material Walters claims schools have, Walters emailed and had staff members hand-delivering copies of explicit materials to lawmakers' offices, though he never said what schools, if any, the materials came from.

In June 2023, Walters spoke at the Moms for Liberty national summit in Philadelphia where he advocated eliminating the United States Department of Education and criticized teachers unions. During a July town hall, Walters was asked "How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of (critical race theory)" and responded "Let's not tie it to the skin color and say that the skin color determined that." The comments sparked social media backlash and were satirized by The Onion. Walters had earlier in the event said "Our kids should know ... about the Tulsa Race Massacre. They absolutely should. There are (state academic) standards around that. I'll continually work for a more robust curriculum around these events."

In September, Walters announced that the state would cooperate with PragerU to provide curriculum to Oklahoma schools, a policy similar to one recently adopted in Florida. The policy was criticised by Oklahoma Democrats for "whitewashing history". Walters was featured in a PragerU video on their website acknowledging the partnership. After the announcement, The Black Wall Street Times, a Tulsa based African American newspaper, requested an interview with Walters, but was told by a Oklahoma Department of Education spokesperson that they were barred from interviews due to tweets by the paper's editor-in-chief.

Later that month he spoke to the United States House Education Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education in favor of banning the Confucius Institute because it was funded by the Chinese government. During the hearing representative Raul Grijalva asked Walters about allowing the oil and gas industry to influence climate change curriculum through PragerU, to which he responded "these are American companies that are a benefit to the American economy, so I don't see any issue with them having influence on our education system." In an interview, political science professor Melody Huckaby Rowlett said it is rare to see state officials speak at subcommittee meetings and "this is a way for his name to be heard in wider circles. He's also, probably most importantly, also able to raise funds, so it's a fundraising tactic more than anything else and that purpose is absolutely higher office." He also launched an investigation into Western Heights Public Schools for hiring a principal who is a drag performer in their free time.

In 2024, Walters attempted to reject the American Library Association's standards for information literacy. Walters had called the current standards "woke". The ALA, which works with the Oklahoma Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians, said it "remains focused on ensuring that our current information literacy standards meet academic rigor and that we continue to strive to make Oklahoma a top 10 state in literacy". He has also accused librarians of promoting pornography.

In January 2024, Walters appointed the Libs of TikTok account owner Chaya Raichik to a statewide library advisory board, prompting criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. Walters's decision also resulted in protests from a number of parents, educators, and lawmakers who believe Raichik endangered students and teachers.

Tulsa Public Schools accreditation

In July 2023, Walters asked the Oklahoma Department of Education Board to delay a vote on Tulsa Public Schools ("TPS") state accreditation until August 24 to give time to review its accreditation status. After the delay, Walters vocally maintained the state was considering not accrediting the district or having the state Department of Education take over the district. Superintendent of TPS, Deborah Gist, spoke out against Walter's campaign arguing it had caused teachers to quit right before the start of classes. She announced her resignation the Tuesday before the meeting. Walter's said of her resignation, "This is a tremendous day for Tulsa parents, for Tulsa students, I've called for her resignation from day one."

Tulsa mayor, G.T. Bynum, criticized the proposal writing "We do not want it, and we do not need it." State representatives for Tulsa Regina Goodwin, Monroe Nichols, and John Waldron criticised the prospect of a state takeover; while state representative Mark Tedford asked Walters to take less drastic measures. Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin Jr. also expressed concerns with the state taking over the district (which serves about 800 Cherokee students). Governor Kevin Stitt reassured Tulsans that whatever the state board decided "everything is going to be OK". High school students in TPS staged a walkout the day of the vote in protest of the meeting.

On August 24, 2023, the State Board of Education voted 6-0 to approve Tulsa Public Schools as "accreditation with deficiencies". Walters praised the local school board for accepting Gist's resignation saying they had "root[ed] out a cancer in the district that caused so many problems" and vowed to take additional action if the district did not improve in the next few months.

Calls for impeachment

In August 2023, the Monday before a meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education, far-right social media account Libs of TikTok released an edited video of a Union Public Schools ("UPS") librarian which Walters shared the following morning. The six consecutive school days following the video's release, both UPS and the librarian's home received bomb threats. Walters attended the board meeting that Thursday, during which a third bomb threat had been made against Union Public Schools. Walters initially did not have any comments on the matter. The following day, after a fourth bomb threat was made, Walters denounced the threats, though he did not remove the Libs of TikTok post believed to have incited the threats.

State representative Mickey Dollens and former governor David Walters, both Democrats, called on Walters to be removed from office for inciting the bomb threats; Oklahoma House minority leader Cyndi Munson and state representative Melissa Provenzano called for a house investigative committee to consider impeaching Walters. Oklahoma Senate minority leader Kay Floyd supported the calls for an investigative committee. In response, a spokesperson for Walters argued that by "seeking to remove a popularly elected constitutional officer, they represent a direct threat to our democracy". Speaker of the Oklahoma House Charles McCall later shut down prospects of impeachment saying "until somebody puts forth an allegation of something criminal [in] nature, I don't see the House of Representatives just weighing in and trying to overturn the election results of the state of Oklahoma".

Mandate to Teach the Bible in Public Schools

In June 2024, Walters issued a memo announcing that all public schools in Oklahoma would be required to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, directing "that every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom." Walters' announcement followed the passage of a Louisiana law earlier in the month requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all Louisiana public school classrooms. When asked what would happen to teachers who didn't comply with the mandate, Walters said they could lose their jobs.

Electoral history

2022

Notes

References