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.
Evidently, that won’t be necessary: Walters is resigning. NBC News reported:
Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters announced Wednesday that he would step down from his role overseeing the state’s schools to lead the conservative group Teacher Freedom Alliance, saying, ‘We’re going to destroy the teachers unions.’ … Teacher Freedom Alliance confirmed Walters’ new role as CEO, saying in a post to X that he ‘fearlessly fights the woke liberal union mob.’
Whether anyone will miss Walters is a subject of debate.
Gentner Drummond, for example, Oklahoma’s Republican state attorney general, described Walters’ tenure as “a stream of never-ending scandal and political drama,” adding that Walters has been “an embarrassment to our state.”
Drummond concluded, “It’s time for a State Superintendent of Public Instruction who will actually focus on quality instruction in our public schools.”
The frustration is understandable. Walters took over as Oklahoma’s education secretary 15 years ago and was elected two years later as the superintendent of public instruction, which oversees the state’s public schools.
Once in office, the Republican proceeded to wage a relentless and legally dubious culture war to impose his religious and political beliefs on Oklahoma students. Walters’ agenda included everything from requiring educators keep Christian Bibles in every classroom to incorporate his preferred holy text into school curricula to threatening the teaching licenses of school teachers who resisted his demands for Bible lessons.
Walters also called an Oklahoma teachers’ union a “terrorist organization.” He 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 created a new “America First” teacher certification test for educators who move to Oklahoma from blue states, intended to ensure that they have the proper ideology before entering classrooms; and this month, he announced a plan to establish chapters of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization at every high school in the state. What Walters did not do, however, is succeed in his given task: According to one recent report, Oklahoma is currently ranked 50th in education performance. His resignation comes roughly two months after an investigation began into Walters allegedly having images of naked women on his office television during a state board of education meeting. It was later resolved without charges.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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