• trying to unconstitutionally funnel state funds to church schools;

• trying to force Sunday School curricula into public schools;

• repeatedly seeking $6 million worth of Donald Trump-endorsed Bibles for public schools;

• attacking teachers, librarians and school districts who disagree with him;

• demanding that Oklahoma schools call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America;”

• establishing history class requirements to teach the lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent. [Of the more than 60 lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies, the only one that succeeded left his margin of defeat in Pennsylvania at 80,000 votes.]

State Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, rightly opined: “We should not be spending taxpayer money to fund the propaganda of election deniers or teach their conspiracy theories.”

No, not education experts to try to raise the state’s dismal education ratings [49th, according to U.S. News and World Report and 48th out of 51, according to World Population Review, which also ranks the District of Columbia – yes, the District of Columbia – ahead of Oklahoma – but people whose backgrounds are strictly political.

On April 23, Jennifer Palmer of Oklahoma Watch reported:

“One recent hire is Matt Mohler, a political strategist from Florida. Another is Chad Gallagher, who founded a consulting company and is a longtime advisor to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

“They join another political operative at the agency, Matt Langston, who is Walters’ chief policy advisor. Langston ran Walters’ 2022 campaign for superintendent and joined the staff in January 2023. He runs a Texas-based firm, Engage Right.”

Last year, in a KFOR-TV interview, Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, called Langston, “the puppeteer. He’s the guy that pulls Ryan Walters’ strings.”

McBride added, “He’s a guy that sits in Georgetown, TX, in his house. And he, from what I understand, he doesn’t come up here.”

On April 26, Palmer reported Langston is still registered to vote in Texas, which seems to run counter to the state ban on remote workers. In fact, Walters instituted such a prohibition in 2023, well ahead of Gov. Stitt’s ban earlier this year.

And political operatives don’t come cheaply either.

In her April 23 story, Palmer documented $130,000 in pay for Langston last year, “one of the Department of Education’s highest paid employees,” and “more than $69,000 in the first three months of 2025.”

On April 12, KFOR’s Spencer Humphrey reported that Mohler, OSDE chief of staff, received “multiple paychecks worth a combined total of nearly $48,000 during his first month working for OSDE in February.”

A source told Humphrey that this outlay, filed under “regular pay,” also represented a sign-on bonus spread over several pay periods.

Mohler received two similar “regular pay” checks in March, according to Humphrey:

“The first March paycheck was $15,833.34 for 128 hours of work – a pay rate of around $123.70 per hour. The second March payment was exactly $12,500, but listed zero hours of work.”

Gallagher is on the books as “a temporary senior advisor.” Palmer reports him on the payroll at $46.15 an hour or “nearly $96,000 per year.” Her records check showed him collecting $3,692 in March for 80 hours of work.

So, with World Population Review showing Oklahoma ranked 49th [out of 51] in school funding and resources, Walters spends a good chunk of those limited state funds on political operatives.

[The nearly $600,000 in OSDE year-end bonuses that Palmer discovered shows what a generous guy Walters is with taxpayers’ money, sort of like him wanting to give our money to church schools.]

After one of KFOR’s stories, former Assistant Attorney General Tim Gilpin said, “These large numbers of bonuses and salaries do not feel normal. It appears to be a kind of fast and loose use of our taxpayer dollars to pay folks a lot of money. And if nothing else, it deserves a review and an explanation. After all, it’s taxpayer money he’s using.”

Just how interested in Oklahoma education are these employees and consultants whose expertise lies in political campaigns?

Are Oklahomans paying for Walters’ political brain trust in what many assume to be a run for governor in 2026?

In 2023, he established a Ryan Walters for Governor home page. A quick look shows it to be “Launching Soon.”

Oklahoma City Rep. Cyndi Munson, a Democrat running for governor, drew a conclusion obvious to impartial observers:

“It’s quite concerning, the amount of money they are getting paid and understanding their background. It doesn’t seem like they are there to help the superintendent or the agency figure out how to improve our education outcomes.”