Oklahoma lawmakers have launched an investigation into the Christian Nationalist who runs the state's public education department

Aug 22, 2024

By now, you’re probably well aware of all the ways Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, is trying to inject Christian Nationalism into public schools.

This is the guy who wants to force teachers to make the Bible part of their curriculum, backed a taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school (which the Oklahoma Supreme Court later declared illegal), tried to put Christian chaplains in public schools, tried to mandate displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools.

He also approved the use of PragerU materials in classrooms, claimed the Tulsa Race Massacre had nothing to do with race, falsely insisted that President Joe Biden “wants to destroy our Christian faith,” formed a faith committee to examine prayer in public schools, appointed the troll who runs Libs of TikTok to a statewide library advisory board, and sent out a “sample prayer” for teachers to use for the people of Israel (and definitely not the innocent people living in Gaza).

As he was doing everything in his power to destroy public education in his state, his Republican colleagues rarely had a word of criticism about his actions. They weren’t about to criticize a self-appointed leader of the MAGA faithful in a ruby-red state.

But that may be changing.

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Last week, more than two dozen Republican state legislators sent a letter to House Speaker Charles McCall urging him to investigate Walters, a step which could potentially result in Walters’ impeachment. To be clear, they’re not going after his Christian Nationalist antics. They’re apparently fine with all that. But these allegations are no less important.

The letter from State Rep. Mark McBride, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Education, highlighted a number of specific concerns he had about Walters’ behavior:

Walters wouldn’t allow members of his committee, or its Senate equivalent, to witness Executive Sessions of the Board of Education. That violates state law and it allegedly happened more than once.

Walters refused to answer, or answered only with “significant delays,” the two education committees’ inquiries, to the point where the legislature had to issue two subpoenas to force his responses. (That played into the next issue.)

Walters failed to follow orders regarding how public money could be spent when it came to school security. After the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill giving schools $150 million for security enhancements—that amounted to roughly $96,000 a year, for three years, for every district in the state. The understanding was that if districts didn’t use the money in year one, it would roll over into year two, which some superintendents opted to do so they could make improvements that cost more money… but they soon discovered that Walters wouldn’t give them access to unspent dollars from the previous year.

In other words, Walters was defying a law because he felt like it, then slow-playing responses to any questions about why he was doing it.

Walters refused to hand over information about how he was spending taxpayer dollars for his office’s travel budget. Reporters, McBride wrote, were getting more information about how Walters was spending money than members of the legislature. (KFOR News 4 also said that there were discrepancies between what they found through their investigation and the information eventually handed by Walters to McBride.)

Walters wouldn’t fulfill open records requests in a timely manner. That violates state law, and Attorney General Gentner Drummond threatened Walters with civil and criminal action over it. (Unless there’s good reason for a delay, requests are supposed to be fulfilled within 30 days. One reporter informed Drummond that he was still waiting for information requested 10 months earlier and that no explanation for the delay was ever provided.)

Walters refused to spend money that he was legally obligated to spend on asthma inhalers. In 2023, the state legislature passed a bill giving schools emergency albuterol inhalers and spacers (so the inhalers could be used by multiple students) at a total cost of $250,000. Walters’ office, however, never spent that money. The schools never received the inhalers. Lawmakers were stonewalled by Walters’ office when they asked what the hell was going on since the lack of equipment could literally put students in danger.

As you can see, the concerns are legitimate and go well beyond culture war battles. While Walters’ Christian Nationalism is damning, the fact that he’s running his office as a dictatorship rather than as a facilitator of the lawmakers’ wishes has even Republicans calling for his head.

McBride writes to Speaker McCall:

It saddens me that I must make such a request of you. However, I believe that all other remedies have been exhausted. I hear daily from constituents from my district and taxpayers from across the state pleading for this body to take action and hold the Superintendent and the State Board of Education accountable for their rogue behavior.

I have repeatedly met one-on-one with the Superintendent, where I pled with him to please focus on the responsibilities and duties of his office, and work with the Legislature to improve and advance the cause of Public Education in Oklahoma. These pleas have fallen on deaf ears and the Superintendent has chosen to pursue an aggressively opposite path, one filled with name-calling, obstruction, defiance, and secrecy. 

I’ve argued before that Walters is angling to become Secretary of Education in a possible second Trump administration and that last sentence only confirms my hunch.

McCall, however, says he won’t act on the letter unless 51 House Republicans sign onto it, representing two-thirds of the caucus. Right now, there are only 25 names on the letter. Trying to get other Republicans to sign on is like asking MAGA cultists to investigate Donald Trump—it won’t matter what the allegations are; they’re almost certainly going to refuse because they have no sense of ethics or principles.

And, in predictable fashion, Walters (already tasting victory) responded to the letter by daring Republican lawmakers to impeach him.

“I am calling on Speaker McCall and Mark McBride to begin their impeachment proceedings Monday,” Walters said during a news conference on Friday. “It is time for Oklahomans to have the answers.”

…

On Thursday, state Rep. Kevin Wallace announced that the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency will start an investigation into concerns about Oklahoma State Department of Education spending. McCall approved the LOFT investigation.

“We do not need to wait on a LOFT committee. We do not need to wait on an investigation. It is time to start the proceedings immediately,” Walters said. “The speaker wants to impeach me for political advantage in the 2026 governor’s race, so let’s start the impeachment proceedings.”

Walters called for the proceeding to begin because, right now, he knows that won’t happen. Instead of addressing any of the substantive issues, he’s acting like this is merely politics. He would rather see kids die from an asthma attack than do his damn job. (It’s telling that he’s going after Speaker McCall, the guy who’s preventing a formal investigation from happening, rather than McBride. It’s like Walters wants to make sure McCall stays in line so as to not piss off the MAGA faithful.)

Walters’ push for an immediate vote could also be self-serving. If the support for an investigation has this many GOP holdouts, there’s no way Walters is getting impeached. If an investigation occurred, it’s possible even more of Walters’ shenanigans could be uncovered to the point that even those holdouts have no choice but to kick him out of office.

So here’s where we stand: The LOFT is conducting an investigation into Walters. This week, Attorney General Drummond demanded that Walters release the money for security updates and said “I pray that your failure to deploy these funds does not result in deadly consequences.” And Walters, imitating his idol Trump, is still pretending he’s the real victim in all this, saying “The left and union lackeys call for an investigation and impeachment. I will never stop standing for parents!”

The “left” and union members aren’t calling for the investigation and impeachment. Republicans are. Walters is lying because Jesus taught him that’s okay.

But it’s not just Oklahoma legislators who are coming after Walters.

This week, we learned that a performance review of Oklahoma’s public education system, conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, found that the state is failing miserably in many ways. (The report is meant to offer oversight on how federal education money is spent across the country.)

The grading chart for the report ranges from one star ― meaning an area requiring “urgent attention” by the state agency — to four stars, which means the agency “met requirements with commendation.” Oklahoma received one star in 32 of the 52 categories measured (62%) and two stars ― “met requirements with recommendation” ― in seven others.

In the majority of the 32 items requiring action, the federal agency gave the state agency 30 or 60 days in which to provide documentation on items, update or develop plans, take corrective action. 

In one case, for example, the government said Oklahoma wasn’t providing proper records regarding funding for low-income schools and COVID-era funds.

Dan Isett, a spokesperson for Walters’ office, blamed everyone except Walters, including his predecessor, before insisting everything is fine now.

"The now-dated report from the US Department of Education is the first multi-program performance review in the history of the state, and the first of any kind in seven years," Isett said. "The policies, procedures, and documents requested by the USDE were those used or developed in the 22-23 school year. The snapshot of data taken in December 2023 for the USDE report found some areas that needed improvement, the number of which are similar to other states that have undergone this process. The OSDE team has moved swiftly to address these findings, has already resolved many of them, and all will be resolved by the October deadline. Although the full report is not due to USDE until mid-October, the agency has worked quickly and diligently to resolve any remaining issues."

The bottom line is that Walters isn’t just a culture warrior who has no business running public schools (in part because he openly admits wanting to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education); he’s also just really goddamn awful at doing his job. He’s a Christian Nationalist who failed upward because conservative voters don’t give a damn about public education, either. They will gleefully vote for anyone who speaks their religious language for any position, regardless of competence, because they believe it’s what Jesus wants. In the case of Walters, their ignorance is hurting their children. Sometimes literally, when it comes to those inhalers.

If the legislature is too cowardly to impeach him, and conservative voters are too gullible to elect people who know what they’re doing, then Oklahoma will remain stuck in a downward spiral.