Over the last two years, Oklahoma state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters has attracted national attention to the state several times while serving as the state’s top education official.
Since his election in late 2022, Walters has launched initiatives like enabling the Bible to be in Oklahoma classrooms in Oklahoma public schools, or his most recent effort to establish Turning Point USA chapters in every high school in Oklahoma.
During much of Walters’ tenure, many people formed polarized opinions on his actions. The same programs he pushed sparked discourse on all sides of the political spectrum.
Now, the superintendent has announced plans to leave the role and accept a job as CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a new professional organization that touts itself as “an alternative to union membership” for teachers. It is a part of the Freedom Foundation, a far-right anti-labor union think tank.
Here’s a rundown of some of his most notable moments since he entered the office in January 2023.
Tulsa school district accreditation, August 2023
State School Superintendent Ryan Walters entered a dispute with former Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools Deborah Gist.
In a July meeting, Walters, alongside Gov. Kevin Stitt, said that the district “has failed the students,” criticizing the district’s closing during the COVID-19 panic and Walters noting the school faced “significant and severe issues” and was “plagued by scandal.”
“They’ve been one of the worst performing schools in the state of Oklahoma,” Walters said at a state Board of Education meeting in 2023 after threatening to remove the district’s accreditation.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist. Photos by The Oklahoman and Tulsa World
Lawmakers alleged that the targeting was due to the system having the “most African American kids” as well as the fact that OKCPS was led by a man while TPS was led by a woman.
“Look at the district leadership of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, what’s different? I don’t think you can ignore that either,” Tulsa mayor Monroe Nichols said while serving as a representative for the city.
When Gist resigned in August 2023, there were mixed reactions of outrage and optimism that the schools would improve.
In 2025, a 60-page audit report was released by Oklahoma Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd that reviewed financial irregularities in Tulsa schools. Auditors investigated financial records from 2015 to 2023, and found $25 million was spent without proper bidding, and $824,503 in fraud by a former administrator.
Banned books in Oklahoma, February 2024
Walters attempted to remove “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls from the school library in Edmond. Walters, himself, called both books pornographic in nature and criticized the district for choosing to “peddle porn.”
State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters at the February meeting of the Oklahoma state school board, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.
The books, both award-winning best-sellers, were adapted into movies yet still received criticism for their depictions of sexual violence, addiction and profanity.
When Walters asked the school to remove the books, citing a review from OSBE’s Library Media Advisory Committee, the district pushed back, filing a lawsuit against the state with the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Though Walters attempted to pull rank, saying his election allowed him to “go in and clean up schools,” the Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately ruled that neither Walters nor the board and department of education has the authority to establish policies concerning books. Instead, it is to be decided on a district level by their board systems.
Bibles in public schools, May 2024
In May 2024, a request was issued by the Oklahoma state Department of Education to purchase 55,000 Bibles with the intention of being in all classrooms in Oklahoma public schools.
A stack of books, including bibles is placed near State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters’ seat during an Oklahoma school board meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Walters said the proposal came after Oklahomans told him they believe the book should be in the schools as part of American history.
“That is absolutely something that I will continue to fight, till every kid understands that the history of America includes the Bible, includes biblical principles,” Walters said in 2024. “I mean, my goodness, you would have to walk around with a blindfold throughout American history to not see that.”
After making bids for the Bibles, vendors had to meet a few qualifications, which ended up only leading to the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, which was often referred to as the Trump Bible. With a $60 price tag, this would equal $3.3 million expended on all the Bibles.
In the end, just more than 500 Bibles were purchased for AP Government classes across the state.
“We have the Bible, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights — these are foundational documents in our nation’s history,” he said in 2024. Each of those documents is also reprinted in the “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bible.
New social studies standards, Dec. 2024
Swiftly after proposing that the Bible be in schools, Walters promised to overhaul social studies teaching standards for classrooms.
State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks during a press conference following a State Board of Education meeting in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024.
The standards were touted as “among the strongest in the country: pro-America, pro-American exceptionalism, and strengthen civics and constitutional studies across every grade.”
The new standards, Walters said at the time, would be developed by a new “Executive Review Committee” to ensure “that social studies reflect accuracy and not political slanted viewpoints.”
Now, 9 months later, recent developments state the overhaul has been put on pause by the Oklahoma Supreme Court as the court considers a lawsuit challenging the social studies standards.
Thus, the standards, which took effect for the current school year, cannot be taught, and no money can be spent to implement them in Oklahoma schools, effectively stopping that process.
‘Anti-woke test’ for teachers, July 2025
Ryan Walter’s wants teaching applicants to take “woke” test.
Since July, Walters has been on a mission to ensure that “radical leftist ideology” from states like California and New York remains out of Oklahoma by threatening to hold their teaching certificate if they are unable to pass the new assessment.
To do so, he worked alongside PragerU to formulate a “woke test,” which was later rebranded to “Teacher Qualification Test” on PragerU’s website. The test was published in an ad in the New York Times.
Beneath the questions, the ad addresses PragerU’s support for the test:
“How would you assess a teacher who took this test and failed it? Would you want that person teaching your children? The answer for Oklahoma is no. We suspect (or, at least, hope) your answer would be the same. Oklahoma will require teachers from New York and California to pass this test before being hired. Oklahoma, it seems to us, has the right to expect its teacher to be both competent and consonant with its values.”
William C. Wertz, Alexia Aston, Molly Young, Murray Evans, The Oklahoman contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who is Ryan Walters? Look back on his years as Oklahoma Superintendent
