Ryan Walters (politician)

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.[14] He was endorsed in the primary by Governor Kevin Stitt and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.[15][16] He advanced to an August run-off alongside April Grace, which he won with 53% of the vote.[17][18] While campaigning, Walters promulgated the litter boxes in schools hoax.[19] He defeated the Democratic Party's nominee, Jena Nelson, in the general election.[20] After the campaign, Walters was fined for 14 violations of state campaign finance ethics rules. He contested 13 of the violations.[21][22]

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.[11] 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.[23][24] Drummond also said he was not "taking a stance" on Walters's rules.[25] 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.[26]

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.[3] 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."[27] The comments sparked social media backlash and were satirized by The Onion.[28][29][30] 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."[31][32]

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.[33] The policy was criticised by Oklahoma Democrats for "whitewashing history".[34] Walters was featured in a PragerU video on their website acknowledging the partnership.[35] 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.[36][35]

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.[37] 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.”[38] 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."[39] He also launched an investigation into Western Heights Public Schools for hiring a principal who is a drag performer in their free time.[40][41]

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[lower-alpha 1] or having the state Department of Education take over the district.[42] Superintendent of TPS, Deborah Gist, spoke out against Walter's campaign arguing it had caused teachers to quit right before the start of classes.[43] She announced her resignation the Tuesday before the meeting.[42] 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."[44]

Tulsa mayor, G.T. Bynum, criticized the proposal writing "We do not want it, and we do not need it."[45] State representatives for Tulsa Regina Goodwin, Monroe Nichols, and John Waldron criticised the prospect of a state takeover;[46][47] while state representative Mark Tedford asked Walters to take less drastic measures.[1] 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).[47] Governor Kevin Stitt reassured Tulsans that whatever the state board decided "everything is going to be OK."[48] High school students in TPS staged a walkout the day of the vote in protest of the meeting.[49]

On August 24, 2023, the State Board of Education voted 6-0 to approve Tulsa Public Schools as “accreditation with deficiencies.” Walter's 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.[50]

The Monday before the meeting, the 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.[51] The six consecutive school days following the videos release, both UPS and the librarian's home received bomb threats.[52][53] Walters later denounced the bomb threats, he did not remove the post.[54]

State representative Mickey Dollens and former governor David Walters, both Democrats, called on Walters to be removed from office for inciting the bomb threats;[55] Oklahoma House minority leader Cyndi Munson and state representative Melissa Provenzano called for a house investigative committee to consider impeaching Walters.[56] Oklahoma Senate minority leader Kay Floyd supported the calls for an investigative committee.[57] A Walter's spokesperson claimed that by "seeking to remove a popularly elected constitutional officer, they represent a direct threat to our democracy."[56][53] 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."[58]