In recent years, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has cultivated a reputation as a right-wing Christian nationalist — even some Republicans have expressed discomfort with his radicalism — prompting discussion among legislators in the state about possible impeachment proceedings.
The criticisms, however, have not deterred him or his agenda. According to The Hill:
Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters on Tuesday announced a plan to establish chapters of the conservative organization Turning Point USA at all state high schools.
“I am very excited to announce a partnership with @TPUSA [Turning Point USA] to establish chapters in ALL Oklahoma high schools,” he wrote via social media. “Radical leftist teachers’ unions have dominated classrooms for far too long, and we are taking them back.”
For those unfamiliar with the group, Turning Point USA was founded by activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot two weeks ago. Its goal is to promote conservative politics in high schools and on college campuses.
This is the same Walters who instructed schools across Oklahoma to observe a moment of silence for Kirk, in part because of the activist’s work in promoting “Christianity’s role in society” and “conservative values.”
To be sure, Walters’ plan to establish individual chapters of a conservative organization at every high school in Oklahoma didn’t exactly come as a surprise. He is obviously committed to using his office to advance an ideological agenda.
But in conservative circles, one of the more common complaints in recent years is that public schools try to “indoctrinate” students with progressive ideas, effectively grooming them to become Democratic voters. The goal, the right has argued, should be politically neutral education, leaving people to make up their own minds.
The “indoctrination” criticisms have long sounded more like conspiracy theories than legitimate concerns, but Walters appears to be turning the whole argument on its head. Indeed, imagine if education officials in a blue state boasted to the public that they were partnering with the ACLU and Indivisible to establish chapters of the organizations in every high school in the state.
Republicans would probably accuse those officials of going too far. And yet, here we are.
It’s one thing if high school students in Oklahoma chose to create Turning Point USA chapters voluntarily. But why should the state superintendent of public instruction intervene directly on behalf of one political group he favors?
As for his “greatest hits” collection, the list is not short. A state requirement that Oklahoma educators keep Christian Bibles in every classroom and incorporate his preferred holy text into public school curricula? That was Walters. Threatening the teaching licenses of school teachers who resisted his demands for Bible lessons? That was Walters, too.
Walters has called an Oklahoma teachers’ union a “terrorist organization.” He has partnered with a far-right propaganda outlet, bringing its materials into classrooms. He pushed a social studies curriculum guidance that directed educators to push pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. He helped put the founder of a right-wing social media account on the state library panel.
At one point last fall, as my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones noted, Walters even wanted to require schools to show children a video of him praying for Donald Trump — though the state attorney general’s office said that couldn’t happen.
Last month, Walters even created a new “America First” teacher certification test for educators who move to Oklahoma from blue states, ensuring that they have the proper ideology before entering classrooms.
His partnership with the group Kirk created, in other words, might seem unusual, but it’s part of an unsubtle pattern.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
