New Role for Oklahoma’s Top Education Official: Seeking To ‘Destroy’ Teachers’ Unions Nationwide

The MAGA-aligned top education official in Oklahoma, Ryan Walters, is leaving his position to embark on a mission to “destroy” teachers’ unions.Mr. Walters, who has served as the state superintendent for just less than three years, has repeatedly made headlines for his attempts to infuse religious themes into public education, while trying to eliminate “wokeness” from public classrooms.Mr. Walters appeared to tease his resignation announcement on X on Wednesday evening, writing, “Big news tonight on Fox News … Liberal’s worst nightmare is about to become true.”Hours later, Mr. Walters was interviewed on Fox, where he said he is “excited” to resign and take a position as the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, where he said he will work to “destroy the teachers’ unions.”“We have seen the teachers’ unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools,” Mr. Walters said. “We are one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the country. We will build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers’ unions once and for all. So, this fight’s going national, and we will get our schools back on track.”Mr. Walters, first elected as schools superintendent in 2022, could have run for re-election in 2026. There has been speculation that he plans to run for governor next year.His time in office has been marked by attempts to eliminate what he said was “woke indoctrination” in public education. He has sought to replace it with nationalist and religious themes.Last year, he issued a mandate for public schools to put the Bible in classrooms. He also pushed through a new social studies curriculum requiring students to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election, and to learn about how stories from the Bible and Jesus’s teachings “influenced the American colonists, founders, and culture.” Both of those initiatives have been put on hold by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Mr. Walters has also announced a plan to introduce an “America First” test for educators moving from blue states who want to teach in Oklahoma. The assessment, developed in partnership with PragerU, asks teachers about “fundamental biological differences between boys and girls,” the U.S Constitution, and American exceptionalism. This week, he unveiled a plan to establish a Turning Point USA chapter in every high school in Oklahoma. Mr. Walters has clashed with members of the Oklahoma Board of Education, several of whom alleged in July that he displayed images of naked women on a TV in his office.The Oklahoma County sheriff, Tommie Johnson, confirmed this month that the TV did have images of naked women on it but said the images came from Jackie Chan’s “The Protector.” The incident was “no fault of anyone,” and there was “no malicious intent,” he said.Mr. Walters is expected to step down in early October. The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, will have to appoint a replacement for Mr. Walters to serve in the role for the remainder of his term.

New Role for Oklahoma’s Top Education Official: Seeking To ‘Destroy’ Teachers’ Unions Nationwide

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