If and when term-limited legislative leaders unveil plans to seek higher office, remember this: it was they who fiddled while Oklahoma public education burned – torched by none other than the state superintendent, Ryan Walters.
The failure of Speaker Charles McCall, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat and Co. to rein in Walters’ malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance over the last 19-plus months all but invited him to attempt to transform the state’s K-12 classrooms into Christian nationalist boot camps.
Federal grant money went untapped. New rules were promulgated without legislative authority or approval. Tax dollars were spent on the superintendent’s national self-promotion campaign.
And the latest coups de grace: Walters’ orders the Bible and American Exceptionalism be incorporated in curriculum – keys to religious extremists’ efforts to rewrite U.S. history by replacing church-state separation with the fabrication America was founded as a Christian nation.
Walters even appointed a Rogue’s Gallery of out-of-state Christian nationalists and revisionist historians to help rewrite the state’s social studies curriculum to “emphasize the unique and exceptional nature of the American republic, promote a proper understanding of the nation’s founding, and instill pride in our civic traditions and Oklahoma heritage.”
Public opinion polls, of course, indicate Walters is about as a popular in Oklahoma as a skunk at a family picnic. But that seems to matter little to an elected official focused on burnishing a national profile that could secure a Trump administration [if there is one] appointment or a post-superintendent calendar filled with lucrative speaking engagements and a full-time alt-right media gig.
Notice what’s missing here? Taking steps that would help improve Oklahoma public education. Walters spends less time talking about that than he does accusing educators of indoctrinating students with woke ideology. It’s wise to remember an age-old truth: Beware the accuser. It’s often the finger-pointer perpetrating the misdeed. Indeed, Walters’ demand public schools emphasize his brand of Christianity is the very definition of indoctrination.
In addition, Walters holds views contrary to actual history – America’s and Oklahoma’s. At statehood, our Founders wrote a strict church-state separation into the state Constitution. Eight years ago, voters overwhelmingly reaffirmed the principle by rejecting a state question that would have loosened it.
Walters deploys a demagogue’s favorite tool: Taking a kernel of truth – a flagging sense of civic duty – and misconstruing it as “citizens, parents, and business leaders … disgusted with the lack of civic knowledge, love for our country, and historical education among our young people.”
It is, sadly, cause for celebration when scarcely more than 50% of registered voters bother to cast ballots these days. But that is less an indictment of civics education than a reaction to big money’s corruption of the electoral and political processes which leaves far too many Sooners convinced their votes don’t matter.
As a result, elections increasingly are decided by the political extremes that do vote. That’s how Oklahoma ended up with Walters as state superintendent rather than the far better qualified, former Teacher of the Year Jena Nelson.
It’s hardly surprising Gov. Kevin Stitt has done precious little to thwart his protégé and former cabinet secretary. But top lawmakers’ failure to pursue an all-out, full-throated defense against Walters’ excesses is legislative malpractice.
That is worth remembering given McCall is believed eyeing the 2026 governor’s race, House Floor Leader Jon Echols is oft-mentioned as an attorney general hopeful, and Treat shows up on lists of potential candidates for a variety of offices.
Once voters come to grips with Walters’ reign of error, current legislative leaders could see their dreams of higher office evaporate because they didn’t do enough to protect the crown jewels of many Oklahoma communities – their public schools.
