Oklahoma’s MAGA-faithful superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, has a headline-grabbing agenda that is inspiring state Republicans to campaign on education — and against Walters.
The state is currently ranked near last in education in the nation. And conservative gubernatorial candidates are now using their education platforms to boost their candidacies, at the same time dinging Walters, who has said he’s considering a run for governor.
“Listen, the proof is in the pudding. Our state superintendent of education has not got the job done,” Charles McCall, a gubernatorial candidate and former speaker of the Oklahoma House, told NOTUS.
Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon made a trip to the state and met with McCall as well as Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is term-limited. And Walters, who was intentionally left out of that meeting, has again made national headlines, this time for developing an “America First” test with PragerU for teachers moving to the state from New York and California.
Walters recently appeared on NewsNation to talk about the state’s new test for teachers, meant to weed out “left-wing” educators. Teachers coming to work in the state from New York and California must get a “perfect score” on the 50-question multiple-choice test and answer questions such as being “able to tell that there is a difference between the sexes,” Walters said.
“We’re following President Trump’s clear lead here, which is to get back to truth, reality in our schools, and so we will teach science the way that it is, and we also will teach American history in a patriotic way,” Walters said. He previously told CNN that if applicants don’t pass the test, they will not receive a teaching certificate or be able to teach during this school year.
Walters’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Though Walters has not officially announced a run for governor, he is adding “synergy” to the race, Oklahoma Republican pollster Pat McFerron told NOTUS.
“There’s no more high-profile political figure in the state than Ryan Walters. There’s more intensity about Ryan Walters, both among the general electorate and the Republican primary, than we even see for the sitting governor,” McFerron said. “Because he’s in that education realm, I think it helps elevate things, and he drives eyeballs to newscasts.”
McFerron is watching in real time how potent education is in this race. Data he collected in early August shows nearly 40% of likely Republican primary voters say education is the most important issue for the state Legislature to address.
“In 30 years of polling, I have never seen education outdistance the kind of standard, top issues of the economy, taxes and crime. And it’s quadruple any one of those by itself,” McFerron said.
Walters is not the only one drawing heat over education in this race. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, the first well-known Republican candidate to jump into the race, has been criticized for filing a lawsuit against what would have been the first publicly funded religious school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. A deadlocked Supreme Court decision blocked the school from receiving public funds in May.
“It doesn’t help either that we’ve got an attorney general in the state that’s fighting against the Trump administration in court to undermine school freedom, efforts that the president is pushing and supportive of, and what the Legislature and the current governor of the state of Oklahoma have accomplished,” McCall said.
It’s something another candidate, former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, has also criticized Drummond for.
“Attorney General Gentner Drummond versus President Donald Trump in the United States Supreme Court?” Mazzei said in a video on social media in April. “I’m going with Trump.”
Stephanie Alexander, a spokesperson for Drummond’s campaign, responded to the candidates’ criticism by pointing to an argument Drummond has long used to justify his work in the case: it prevents “indoctrination.”
“As a strong supporter of President Trump, Attorney General Drummond won the fight to keep our tax dollars from funding Sharia schools and radical Islamic indoctrination, successfully defending Oklahoma law and upholding the U.S. Constitution,” Alexander said in a statement to NOTUS.
At a campaign event last week, Drummond outlined his own plan to improve education, which includes efforts to address Oklahoma’s teacher shortage and ensure children in the state are literate.
He made sure to praise teachers, saying he wants to “streamline certification, mentor early child educators and provide competitive pay, not just to attract talent, but to keep it in Oklahoma. I want Oklahoma to be the best place in America to be a teacher, not the worst.”
“We need to stop tearing down our teachers. That’s why good men and women are leaving the profession because they don’t need this noise,” Drummond added later in the event. “If we … can together, with a unified voice, elevate and honor the profession, we will attract the very best in Oklahoma. We will drag from Texas and Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, excellent educators that want to be part of a winning team.”
After Drummond’s speech on Tuesday, he told reporters that he hopes Walters jumps in the race, Oklahoma Voice reported.
“That’s one way of term-limiting him,” Drummond said. “So we can get a new opportunity for new leadership in [the state Department of Education] to where the next superintendent works with educators, not against them.”
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This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and Oklahoma Watch.