There’s no way around it. Ryan Walters is a headline whore.
Olahoma’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected to oversee public education in our state, put his primary responsibilities on the back burner long ago.
His priority, it seems, is all about getting in the national news. He solicits media exposure with the help of a Trump-connected, DC-based PR firm, paying their fees with Oklahoma tax dollars. FOX 25 News, Oklahoma City’s local Fox affiliate, recently investigated Walters’ media appearances. They discovered documentation of more than 400 national media appearances Walters made during his first two years in office.
As their report points out, “It’s been 15 months since Gov. Stitt banned wasteful public relations spending” in state agencies, but Walters has not slowed down. According to their report, he often had six appearances in a single day.
This doesn’t leave much time for the complex responsibilities of a state agency head.
As Fox-25’s report says: “The man in charge of Oklahoma’s public education, which is ranked 50th in the nation, is platformed on a national stage to speak on issues including PETA, the Olympics, drag queens, immigration, China’s influence, and claims of ‘anti-Semitism taught to Pre-K students.’”
In the wake of right-wing activist Kirk’s public murder, Walters has been rolling out statements, directives, and [of course] media interviews. In his never-ending quest for attention, he appears to be capitalizing on the emotions around Kirk’s violent death.
The day after Kirk was killed, Walters announced that he will fire any educator who posts “inappropriate” comments about Kirk on social media. His statement warned that “any teacher or employee who attempts to glorify this disgusting act of violence will have their teaching license taken away from them and will never step in an Oklahoma school again.” Never mind that Walters does not have the unilateral authority to remove teachers from the classroom or revoke their credentials. Evidently he directed State Department of Education [OSDE] staff to set aside other work and comb through social media posts reported as offensive. As a result, Walters says that 70 teachers so far are under investigation.
A few days later, Walters directed all school districts to hold a “moment of silence” in every school in Kirk’s honor on Sept. 16. Several districts opted out. They pointed out that it would be unnecessarily disruptive to hold a second moment of silence on that day. Under state law every public school in Oklahoma already sets aside a moment of silence every morning. Notwithstanding that Walters, again, lacks legal authority to require the additional set-aside time, he has come out swinging. By the end of the work week, Walters indicated OSDE is investigating a dozen districts for not implementing a moment of silence dedicated to Kirk.
ALSO A BULLY
Presumably, Mid-Del School District is on that list. Mid-Del Superintendent Rick Cobb told The Oklahoman, “We’re not going to interrupt class time, lunch or recess schedules and coordinate a second moment of silence. It’s a weird request. We’ve never been asked to have a moment of silence for a celebrity who passed away.” By placing these districts under investigation, a threat of retaliation is implied. What consequences Walters has in mind, given the limitations on his authority, remains unclear.
If Walters is a headline whore, then, he is more than that. He’s also a bully. He is abusing his office – suggesting powers beyond those he has under state law – to pressure and threaten educators it’s his job to support.
Walters’ latest Kirk-related ploy is his Sept. 23 statement, published on the OSDE website. Addressed to Oklahoma parents and guardians, Walters announced, “We will be putting TPUSA on every high school campus in Oklahoma.”
TPUSA – Turning Point USA – is the right-wing non-profit organization that Charlie Kirk founded and directed. After his death, Kirk’s widow has assumed the position as its new CEO.
It was under the auspices of TPUSA that Kirk traveled to higher ed campuses across the nation, inviting crowds of students to listen to his extremist views and “prove me wrong.” Kirk encouraged members of the audience to engage him in what he called debate. Some criticized these events as a gimmicky forum for Kirk to proselytize, normalizing extreme views to young voters.
In Walters’ statement, he didn’t merely inform the public that TPUSA makes resources available for high school clubs. He declared – again without authority – that every high school in the state will host such a club. In issuing such a mandate, he succeeded again at making national headlines. With his usual penchant for straw man arguments, his statement included this pugilistic flair: “We will fight back against the liberal propaganda, pushed by the radical left, and the teachers union. Our fight starts now.” [How Walters loves to hate on the unions.]
During a news interview, he let his bully flag fly. When asked about schools that choose not to form such a club, Walters told a Fox-25 reporter: “We would go after their accreditation. We would go after their [teaching and administrative] certificates. So yeah, they would be in danger of not being a school district if they decided to reject a club that is here to promote civic engagement. Absolutely, they would be violating the law. They would be violating the rules set forth to them by our agency. So yeah, everything would be on the table in that scenario.”
In what way a school district would be violating state law for not sponsoring a Charlie Kirk club, Walters didn’t say. Sorry to be redundant, but Walters does not dictate accreditation standards, and he doesn’t have sole authority to rescind educators’ professional certification. Administrative rule changes to mandate district compliance would first need to be passed by the state Board of Education, then submitted to the legislature and/or governor for review.
But in the end does he really care if all his bluster comes to nothing? He revealed his true motivations when he explained the importance [to him] of having a TPUSA club in every Oklahoma high school. “We want to be the first state to do that.” There you have it. [As an aside, Walters’ habitual use of the “royal we” gets me every time.]
If it happens: more splashy headlines. If it doesn’t [more likely by a long shot], at least he got in this week’s headlines.
It is now well known, thanks to less desirable headlines, that Oklahoma ranks 50th in the nation for education. Even so, Walters’ frequently far-fetched education initiatives seem much more tailored for media exposure than to improve the state’s schools. His attention-seeking turns as a headline whore have included calling for tax-funded religious schools, “Trump Bibles” in the classroom, inserting Biblical teachings into Social Studies lessons, using a test to screen out “woke” out-of-state teaching applicants – and now the demand for mandatory Charlie Kirk fan clubs.
None of these is helpful, and most are not legal. But they’ve gotten Ryan Walters what he really wants: his name and face in the national news.
To what end? What exactly is Walters trying to accomplish beyond an exaggerated sense of self-importance? There are numerous possibilities – the governorship? a Trump appointment? a gig as a Fox News Host? A “Pretty Woman” ending [who is Walters’ Richard Gere]?
Fill out your Bingo cards, readers, and I’ll fill out mine.
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE! Walters announced on Fox News he will be resigning as superintendent to become the CEO of the virulently anti-teacher union organization known as Teacher Freedom Alliance. Check your Bingo cards.
