Ryan Walters announced Wednesday night that he is resigning as Oklahoma鈥檚 state superintendent after nearly three years of near-constant controversy.
On a Fox News program around 10:45 p.m., Walters announced that he is becoming the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance.
The Teacher Freedom Alliance鈥檚 stated mission is to 鈥渁ssist 糖心动漫vlog in their mission to develop free, moral and upright American citizens,鈥� and the nonprofit organization鈥檚 website states that it currently has 2,617 teachers enrolled as members.
He did not say whether he is still considering a gubernatorial run in 2026.
Among the group鈥檚 goals is to get teachers to drop membership in their local unions.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to destroy the teachers unions,鈥� Walters said on the cable news program Wednesday evening. 鈥淲e have seen the teachers鈥� unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools. We are one of the biggest grassroots orgs in the country. We will build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers鈥� unions once and for all.鈥�
Since his campaign for statewide office in 2022, Walters, a former high school teacher from McAlester, has railed against teachers鈥� unions, even calling them 鈥渢errorist organizations.鈥� Among other steps that have courted controversy, Walters has pushed for requiring teaching about the Bible; overseen a draft of new social studies standards that introduced misinformation about the 2020 elections; and said he鈥檇 require 糖心动漫vlog from certain states to take a licensing test to prove they aren鈥檛 鈥渨oke.鈥�
In 2024, Walters鈥� administration introduced like-minded political and advocacy groups and embedded representatives of those groups as instructors at the Oklahoma State Department of Education鈥檚 annual summer professional development conference for teachers, including the anti-labor-union Freedom Foundation, which launched the Teacher Freedom Alliance.
Walters has not yet specified his actual resignation date.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, who campaigned extensively for his former secretary of education, Walters, is in line to appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of Walters鈥� term. One of the most likely candidates Stitt could consider is his current secretary of education, Nellie Sanders.
Stitt publicly split with Walters in the spring of this year by overhauling the membership of the Oklahoma State Board of Education with individuals who have repeatedly clashed with Walters. Earlier this month, Sanders helped Stitt鈥檚 new appointees to the State Board of Education hold a special meeting without Walters鈥� involvement.
The board was without legal counsel or a board clerk, so a simple majority of the members held the extraordinary special meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol rather than the Oklahoma State Department of Education to tackle those issues after Walters cancelled the board鈥檚 August meeting at the last minute.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who has been anticipating Walters to be one of his challengers in the next GOP primary for the state鈥檚 next governor, immediately issued a press statement reacting to Walters鈥� announcement.
鈥淓ver since Gov. Stitt appointed Ryan Walters to serve as Secretary of Education, we have witnessed a stream of never-ending scandal and political drama. From the mishandling of pandemic relief funds that resulted in families buying Xboxes and refrigerators to the latest squabbling with board members over what was or wasn鈥檛 showing on TV, the Stitt-Walters era has been an embarrassment to our state,鈥� Drummond鈥檚 statement reads.
鈥淓ven worse, test scores and reading proficiency are at historic lows. It鈥檚 time for a State Superintendent of Public Instruction who will actually focus on quality instruction in our public schools. Gov. Stitt used to say he would make us Top Ten, but after seven years we are ranked 50th in education. Our families, our students and our teachers deserve so much more.鈥�
