Oklahoma’s superintendent, who has attracted national attention as he sought to install religion and rightwing viewpoints in Oklahoma schools, will resign to run a conservative education non-profit.
Ryan Walters, who has led public schools in Oklahoma since 2022, has put Donald Trump-endorsed Bibles into classrooms and required teaching 2020 election conspiracies.
He is leaving the post to lead the Teacher Freedom Alliance (TFA), which says its mission is to help teachers develop “free, moral, and upright American citizens”. On its website, the group is touting Walters as its new leader.
“Walters fearlessly fights the woke liberal union mob. TFA will take the fight straight to the unions and we will not stop,” the website says. “Together, we will build a national movement that is centered on freedom and common sense, not on bullying and intimidation. Educators will now be able to break free.”
Walters announced his move on Fox on Wednesday night, teasing his appearance by writing on X: “Liberal’s [sic] worst nightmare is about to become true.”
On Fox, Walters said he wanted to “destroy the teachers unions” and “build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers unions once and for all”. He said his plan was to take the fight he started in Oklahoma to a national scale.
A local Fox affiliate reported tallied more than 400 national media appearances in the past two years by Walters as he sought to raise his profile nationally while pursuing a Christian nationalist agenda in Oklahoma, rejecting church and state separation and installing Christian viewpoints in governance.
Walters has repeatedly pushed Christianity into public schools in Oklahoma. He once tried to require schools to play a video of him praying. He advocated for the country’s first Catholic public charter school. This week, he called for chapters of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA in all Oklahoma schools.
skip past newsletter promotion
Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
He also has fought against teachers, particularly claiming they are pushing “woke indoctrination” in Oklahoma schools. He wants teachers coming from liberal states to include an “America first” certification. He put prominent rightwing figures such as the activist behind Libs of TikTok and the leader of the Heritage Foundation on state education committees. Libs of TikTok and other conservative influencers advocated for Walters to become US education secretary under Trump.
