Two days after Ryan Walters announced he would resign on national television, he still hasn’t told Oklahomans when he will actually step down as state schools superintendent.
Only his new employer has confirmed Walters will start working for its organization on Wednesday, Oct. 1. The uncertainty around Walters’ exact departure date means any questions about his eventual successor must wait.
The next state schools superintendent will be inheriting oversight of an educational system that consistently ranks as one of the lowest-performing in the U.S.
Gov. Kevin Stitt has said he will find someone who can lead the turnaround. But he has no timeline on when he would appoint that person “until we have an empty seat,” his spokesperson, Abegail Cave, said the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 26.
Neither Walters nor his representatives have responded to requests from The Oklahoman to discuss his resignation, which he announced Sept. 24 during an appearance on Fox News.
Controversies not behind resignation decision, Ryan Walters says
As state schools superintendent, Walters became a frequent guest on national news shows to tout his “anti-woke” agenda for Oklahoma schools. But critics said his efforts did little to improve the state of Oklahoma’s schools.
By Friday, various groups had planned at least three parties to celebrate his departure. An Oklahoma City cider house said it would donate a portion of the proceeds from its “Ryan Walters Farewell Party” to teachers.
While Walters has said little publicly about why he decided to resign, he told Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO 5 that the controversies he faced during his tenure did not prompt his exit. He said that after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, he realized more voices needed to be heard on “a national stage to protect this country’s values.”
He said he would remain in Oklahoma as he takes on his new role as chief executive officer of a new anti-teachers’ union organization, Teacher Freedom Alliance.
As superintendent, Walters promoted the group on both social media and through multiple news releases on his official state letterhead. It is affiliated with another anti-union organization, the far-right Freedom Foundation.
Walters’ exit came after he faced months of pushback from the State Board of Education, limiting his ability to enact his policy agenda for schools.
He gained national attention for ordering schools to stock every classroom with a copy of the Bible and hold a moment of silence for conservative influencer Charlie Kirk after he was shot and killed. He did not have the authority to enforce either mandate.
Oklahoma state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters will leave his office and start Oct. 1 as CEO of a new anti-teachers’ union organization.
One of his primary focuses as superintendent was going after “bad apple” teachers to revoke their teaching credentials. Several times, Walters pledged to target the licenses of teachers who expressed political views he disagreed with, most recently in posts made after Kirk’s killing. Under his leadership, the Oklahoma State Department of Education said it was investigating 70 teachers who had been reported for posting “vile rhetoric” about Kirk.
In the end, it was a dispute over the rights afforded to teachers under investigation that capped Walters’ final meeting as chair of the State Board of Education. At the meeting on Thursday, Sept. 25, two board members questioned why no licensing cases had come before the board for more than two months.
Board member Michael Tinney, of Norman, said that without action on the cases, teachers could possibly sue board members for violating their due process rights. Walters countered by blaming teachers’ unions, claiming they had advocated for the teachers in behind-the-scenes email campaigns.
“I will be unapologetic about protecting the kids of Oklahoma, fighting back against this radicalism,” Walters said. “I don’t back down to mobs. I don’t back down to this nonsense of, ‘Well, what about all of this?'”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who will replace Ryan Walters? Gov. Stitt on why there’s no timeline