Oklahoma lawmakers, others work to curb Ryan Walters' political influence

Yahoo

26-05-2025

An "emergency" news conference held earlier this month by Oklahoma's top education official turned out to have little to do with education. Instead, Republican state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters called for the state to eliminate both income and property taxes.
He went on to repeat the same talking points in subsequent days, on social media and during an event at the state Capitol on Wednesday, May 21. Reaction from Oklahoma political leaders — all Republicans — to Walters' thoughts on taxes has been blunt.
'That is absurd … completely impractical,' Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton said.
'That's not a serious proposal,' House Speaker Kyle Hilbert said.
"I don't think anybody takes this guy seriously," Gov. Kevin Stitt said.
Walters predicted the backlash and seems to have embraced his status as a GOP iconoclast. But others in his party and outside the Capitol are quietly making moves to try to place guardrails on his power to control what happens in Oklahoma schools.
The pushback comes as lawmakers wrap up this year's regular legislative session and Walters mulls his next political move. He widely is expected to run to replace Stitt in 2026. Although Walters has yet to formally announce his candidacy for that post or for any other, he's continuing to receive contributions to his 2022 campaign for state superintendent. His most recent report to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission showing $17,385 in the account after the first quarter of 2025.
To be clear, Walters still has plenty of political influence. He convinced enough state senators to hold off on a vote to reject controversial new social studies academic standards he's championed, allowing them to go into effect, despite appeals from new Oklahoma State Board of Education members to send them back o the board for more consideration.
He also used a last-minute lobbying campaign to derail Senate Bill 646, which would have remade the Board of Education, expanding it to 10 members, and allow its members to add items to meeting agendas. The House failed to hear the bill before a legislative deadline to do so, although a spokeswoman for Hilbert, R-Bristow, hinted the ideas might not be dead yet.
But in the past two weeks, Walters also has lost on at least four other fronts.
Walters pushed for months for the adoption of an administrative rule that would require schools to seek information about the immigration status of students and their parents during enrollment. He also wanted to require Oklahoma teachers to pass the U.S. Naturalization Test as a requirement to obtain or renew their licenses.
But conservative lawmakers in the Senate and House committees that oversee proposed rules crafted a resolution that would reject those rules. The resolution worked its way through the Legislature, withstanding three attempts by far-right legislators to change it to approve the immigration-check rule. The resolution cleared the House on Wednesday, May 21, and now awaits approval from Stitt, who has criticized Walters for floating the rule proposal and accused him of using children as political pawns.
Also May 21, the House approved House Bill 1277, which would limit the ability of the state Board of Education — of which Walters serves as the chair, due to his elected position — to revoke teaching licenses. That would effectively impede Walters, who has used his control over the licensing process as a political cudgel against educators with whom he's disagreed on issues. The fate of that bill now also rests with Stitt.
The Senate Education Committee also recently advanced Stitt's four new appointments to the state Board of Education. Three have replaced members who never voting against Walters during his tenure as superintendent. Paxton, R-Tuttle, stepped in on Tuesday, May 20, to carry the nomination of one board member, Michael Tinney, of Norman, after his appointment appeared to be in question.
Meanwhile, Walters' claims that the quality of Oklahoma education is improving took a hit. Walters has pointed to 2024 test scores that show more students are proficient in reading and math. But critics have said those scores gave a false impression that student achievement improved, when in reality, the standards had been lowered.
The independent state board in charge of setting the standards, the Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability, held a special meeting Wednesday, May 21, and reset the standard needed for Oklahoma students to post proficient scores. It threw out what's known as the 'cut scores' from 2024 and reverted to its previous standard.
While the commission approved the 2024 standards, the Oklahoma State Department of Education, led by Walters, had developed the now-discarded cut scores. Nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Voice has reported that instructions given by the agency to the committee that developed the 2024 cut scores suggested the setting of lower expectations for students taking the standardized tests.
The goal of May 21's vote was to provide a more accurate representation of how Oklahoma students actually are faring, said state Education Secretary Nellie Tayloe Sanders, a Stitt appointee who leads the CEQA.
'We are committed to being a commission that is working very hard to provide truth and transparency that families can depend on to find out whether their children are ready for life after school,' Sanders said.
Walters blamed the CEQA for any issues with the scores: 'I'm glad that they're taking action now. I mean, it took them forever to do it. It was pretty common sense. But look, they need to quit shifting the blame and actually do their job.'
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters' political influence in Oklahoma is facing pushback