Education in Oklahoma

[patric]

Okla. cant keep from embarrassing itself:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ryan-walters-oklahoma-schools-superintendent-tulsa-rcna101235

[dbacksfan 2.0]

I  would've thought the drunk 3rd grade teacher in Perkins would be a bigger embarrassment.

https://kfor.com/news/local/body-camera-footage-of-accused-drunk-teacher/

[Tulsa Zephyr]

Ryan Walters?  I'm not a proctologist, but I know an A-hole when I see one.

[swake]

Ryan Walters?  I'm not a proctologist, but I know an A-hole when I see one.

Please. Don't insult A-Holes like that. That shitehead is evil.

[patric]

OKLAHOMA CITY — A Tulsa School board member was invited to speak to a right-wing group State Superintendent Ryan Walters called the “tip of the spear and the spine“ in his fight against “woke indoctrination” in public schools.
Walters’ and Tulsa school board member E’Lena Ashley’s appearances Wednesday at a meeting of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee Foundation comes on the heels of Walters’ recent threats to have the state take over Tulsa Public Schools.
Walters called Ashley “the best school board member in the country,” and then OCPAC Foundation President Bob Linn introduced her as “the best school board member in the state of Oklahoma.”
“Our school board is undermining parents and undermining education itself,” Ashley said.
She claimed that the Tulsa school board has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on organizations “owned by the Kaisers and what is the Microsoft guy?”

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/ryan-walters-tulsa-schools-tps/article_16ee27ba-5272-11ee-8b2d-a7255fabdf62.html



State Superintendent Ryan Walters spoke at a Sunday evening event in Tulsa in support of former President Donald Trump and described his many controversial statements and actions since taking elected office in January as “continuing that MAGA agenda.”
Walters railed against the current U.S. president and even alluded to his own inquest to try to prove that Tulsa Public Schools is receiving money from the Chinese
government.
“President Joe Biden wants to destroy this country. He wants to destroy our schools. He wants to destroy your family. And he wants to destroy our Christian faith. Other local politicians who spoke at Sunday evening’s event were Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and Tulsa City Councilor and mayoral candidate Jayme Fowler.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/walters-says-he-s-continuing-maga-agenda-as-oklahoma-state-superintendent/article_c752e99a-50b2-11ee-9f8c-efba65056bee.html

[patric]

The state Education Department is looking to hire someone to manage national media appearances, raising concerns the agency would be boosting Superintendent Ryan Walters’ national profile at taxpayer expense.

Walters, who is less than one year into a four-year term as superintendent, is already a frequent guest on conservative television and radio programs. And on Wednesday, Walters announced he’s joining Donald Trump’s presidential re-election campaign team, but didn’t provide specifics on how it would affect his role as state superintendent.

Critics of the contract said the public shouldn’t have to pay for Walters’ political ambitions.
 
https://oklahomawatch.org/2023/11/02/walters-administration-wants-to-hire-someone-to-get-more-national-media-exposure/

[Red Arrow]

The state Education Department is looking to hire someone to manage national media appearances, raising concerns the agency would be boosting Superintendent Ryan Walters’ national profile at taxpayer expense.
Walters, who is less than one year into a four-year term as superintendent, is already a frequent guest on conservative television and radio programs. And on Wednesday, Walters announced he’s joining Donald Trump’s presidential re-election campaign team, but didn’t provide specifics on how it would affect his role as state superintendent.
Critics of the contract said the public shouldn’t have to pay for Walters’ political ambitions.
https://oklahomawatch.org/2023/11/02/walters-administration-wants-to-hire-someone-to-get-more-national-media-exposure/

I wouldn't mind using public funds to remove Walters from office.

[patric]

I wouldn't mind using public funds to remove Walters from office.

This might qualify:  https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-investigating-oklahoma-education-funds-224852486.html

[patric]

“Rather than enshrine atheism as a state-sponsored religion, we are blessed that our Constitution guarantees religious liberty."

State Superintendent Ryan Walters is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit against the State Virtual Charter School Board over the creation of the nation’s first state-funded religious charter school.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-regional/education/ryan-walters-seeks-to-intervene-in-lawsuit-challenging-state-funded-religious-school/article_b20abe60-7f4b-11ee-987f-474ac3948998.html

[heironymouspasparagus]

I wouldn't mind using public funds to remove Walters from office.

I would sign a petition for that!   Probably even contribute a few bucks to the effort!

[patric]

OKLAHOMA CITY — State Superintendent Ryan Walters told a national audience that the U.S. Department of Education should be eliminated because he thinks the federal government is bullying school districts and pushing socialism in classrooms.

In speaking at Moms for Liberty’s national summit in Philadelphia, Walters criticized the federal government’s involvement in education, endorsed the idea of moving Oklahoma’s school board elections and railed against teachers’ unions.

The fast-growing parents’ rights organization founded by conservative mothers in Florida has been labeled an “anti-government extremist” group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC said Moms for Liberty fights inclusion in schools and compared the group to parents who pushed to resegregate schools during the civil rights movement.

Walters praised Moms for Liberty and compared the group to the nation’s founding fathers.
“You are the most patriotic, pro-American group in the country right now,” he said Friday.

Walters spoke at the summit as part of a 40-minute panel discussion on the future of education. A spokesman for Walters did not respond to a question about whether the superintendent used taxpayer funds to cover the costs of his travel and lodging for the trip.

Each year, Oklahoma receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education funding that helps with day-to-day school operations. Walters has been critical of federal funding opportunities that come with strings attached and directed the State Department of Education to pass on grant opportunities that don’t align with “Oklahoma values.”
https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-regional/education/state-superintendent-ryan-walters-rubs-elbows-with-moms-for-liberty/article_70dd99d2-1770-11ee-8cb0-5ff2a9a3ba7e.html


Values?


The Sarasota Police Department is investigating Florida Republican Party Chair Christian Ziegler, whose wife co-founded the conservative parents group Moms for Liberty, following allegations of sexual assault.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/30/complaint-filed-against-florida-gop-chair-00129343

[patric]

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is considering legal action against a Wisconsin-based group calling for his resignation, he said last week.

“To think they’re going to continue to bully teachers is outrageous,” Walters said, referring to the Freedom from Religion Foundation. “The options we’re looking at are very wide, very broad. Could be legal memos. Could be lawsuits.”

Walters and the FFRF took turns calling each other bullies after the organization complained to Prague Public Schools about Christian prayers being including in the elementary building’s daily activities. The district agreed to discontinue the prayers.

In response, Walters inaccurately linked the group to conservatives’ boogeyman George Soros and said it was attacking religious freedom. He referred to a largely discredited video that disputes the concept of church and state separation.

FFRF then issued an open letter to Walters, saying, “You regularly misuse the official governmental social media afforded to your public office and treat it as a pulpit from which to preach your personal religious views and Christian nationalist propaganda.”

Walters is a full-throated supporter of Christian teaching in public schools, including the use of taxpayer dollars for a proposed Catholic virtual school.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/political-notebook-walters-says-legal-action-possible-against-group-protesting-schools-morning-prayer/article_3e054872-8fd7-11ee-8233-43eed276921c.html

[patric]

The right-wing extremist takeover of public schools seems to closely parallel their takeover of Disney, right down to the key players.

“[Bridget Ziegler’s] role in demonizing members of the LGBTQ community is hurting the state, while she has apparently been a part of the letter B in that group.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scandal-scarred-gop-wife-hides-behind-her-screen-at-disney-oversight-board

[patric]

Echoing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ moves in May that blocked public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed an executive order Wednesday with much of the same.

Taking aim at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in state agencies and higher education, Stitt signed Executive Order 2023-31, which was billed in a statement as “implementing greater protections for Oklahomans and their tax dollars.”

The order adds a number of requirements; including that state agencies and institutions for higher education cannot grant or support diversity, equity, and inclusion positions, departments, activities, procedures, or programs “to the extent they grant preferential treatment based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another’s.”

According to KFOR, University of Oklahoma President Joseph Harroz Jr. said in a letter to students after the announcement that the news “evokes deep concern and uncertainty about the future, and in many ways feels like a step backward.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/oklahoma-guv-kevin-stitt-goes-full-desantis-in-latest-executive-order

[patric]

After Nonbinary Student’s Death, Schools Chief Defends Strict Gender Policies.
The Oklahoma school superintendent, Ryan Walters, said “radical leftists” had created a narrative about the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict that “hasn’t been true.”

In his three years as state superintendent for Oklahoma’s public schools, Ryan Walters, a former high school history teacher, has transformed himself into one of the most strident culture warriors in a state known for sharp-edged conservative politics.

Following the death earlier this month of a 16-year-old nonbinary student a day after an altercation in a high school girls’ bathroom, gay and transgender advocates accused Mr. Walters of having fomented an atmosphere of dangerous intolerance within public schools.

In his first interview reacting to the death of the student, Nex Benedict, Mr. Walters told The New York Times that the death was a tragedy, but that it did not change his views on how questions of gender should be handled in schools.

“I really see there’s a civil war going on, where the left is really fighting for the soul of our country,” he said. “They are undermining the very principles that made this country great, our Judeo-Christian values and our traditions in this country.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/us/oklahoma-nonbinary-student-superintendent.html