Who is Ryan Walters? Oklahoma state superintendent to resign, will lead conservative teacher organization

Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters will be resigning from office with more than a year left in his term. He will be leading a conservative teacher organization, he told Fox News on Wednesday, September 24.

Walters is set to become the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a group that calls itself as an alternative to teacher unions. His campaign manager and senior adviser Matt Langston told Oklahoma Voice that he expects to resign in early October.

After Walters’ resignation, Gov. Kevin Stitt will be tasked to appoint a candidate to lead the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the state Board of Education through the rest of Walters’ term. His term is scheduled to end in January 2027.

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Walters said during a brief appearance on Fox News that he is “excited” to step down and move ahead with his new position. He explained that his goal is to “destroy the teachers unions.”

“We have seen the teachers unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools,” Walters said. “We are one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the country. We will build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers unions once and for all. So, this fight’s going national, and we will get our schools back on track.”

According to the Teacher Freedom Alliance’s website, it has 2,617 enrolled members. Walters celebrated the launch of the organization in March, encouraging educators to join it as “an alternative to woke teachers’ unions.” “Today, Superintendent Ryan Walters announced intent to lead the charge to offer a private industry solution to the far left-leaning Teachers’ Unions that have infected our public education system for decades,” a March 10 news release from his office said.

Walters is a former teacher turned far-right-wing firebrand. He had been elected to a four-year term as Oklahoma’s top education official in 2022. If he had run for reelection, he would have been eligible for a second term.

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Walters has been in the center of various controversies during his two years and 10 months in office. Most recently, he was at odds with Stitt and the state Board of Education. He was previously accused of silently making major changes to state education policy, drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Critics alleged that he sought personal promotion over academic improvement in Oklahoma’s struggling public education system.

Walters’ official website reads, “Ryan Walters taught eight years as a high school history teacher in his hometown at McAlester High School. During his time at MHS, Walters taught Advanced Placement courses in World History, U.S. History and U.S. Government. He also taught on-level history classes, special education classes and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) classes. The Oklahoma State Department of Education named Walters as an Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Finalist in 2016.”

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