One very large order of comeuppance finally on the way for Ryan Walters
Over the weekend, perhaps the state's second and third most important elected Republicans both whacked the state superintendent upside his political head
For the first time since being elected, Ryan Walters, our state superintendent of public instruction in name only, did not come back with snark, petulance, accusation, nor the proposition only he, Matt Langston or Dan Isett own the only voices that matter.
He was dickish, sure, raising asinine questions that matter not.
Still, it feels like a turning point.
He’s in trouble.
He knows it.
The old assumptions are no longer in play.
Perhaps you recall one of his most recent scandals, coming to light only last week, part of an ever expanding list for which he’s wholly responsible.
Here it is.
In the spring of 2023, House Bill 2904, passed and signed into law, directed an annual $50 million be allocated to Oklahoma’s public schools for a period of three years.
Well, here we are and school districts are wondering where their money went.
Specifically, they were wondering where their rollover money went, because when they went looking for it, it was gone, confiscated by the state department of education, despite districts having been told funds could roll over.
Well, in a covering-his-ass spectacle, Walters sent attorney general Gentner Drummond a letter asking for guidance, could the security funds be rolled over?
As it happened, Sunday, Drummond delivered like a sledgehammer, ordering the rollover funds be made available to districts, also admonishing Walters for his recalcitrance, writing, in part, this:
“Those wasted months have resulted in school districts not receiving millions of dollars in funds they could have used to bolster security and protect students. I pray that your failure to deploy these funds does not result in deadly consequences.”
The next question, though it had nothing to do with the issue, just the overarching politics in the great state of Oklahoma, which appear to be changing, became how Walters might respond.
This is how, with a Sunday evening statement, he responded:
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our students and at NO time have our schools gone without security funding in any way.
“Due to ambiguity in the statute passed by the legislature, there was a question of whether some districts that did spend certain security funds in the previous fiscal year could legally roll over that money to this year.
“The legislature considered, but did not pass, an amendment that would have removed any doubt about the rollover issue. To get clarity on these legal issues, I requested this opinion from the Attorney General and our agency may now move forward.”
Well, none other than Kyle Hilbert, house speaker elect, who appears to have far less stomach for Walters’ shenanigans than his eventual predecessor, current speaker Charles McCall, called bull$#%& on Walters via one Twitter post Sunday and another today.
The first:
“Regarding school security funding, there is no ambiguity in this statute. SDE did not follow the law in FY24 and that’s what got us in this mess of having $17m in unallocated funds. The law requires the $50m/year be divided equally amongst school districts. That did not happen.”
The second:
“If $50m is disbursed to districts in FY24 then there’s nothing to roll over as districts would have already received the money. Instead, SDE disbursed the funds in a way that some districts received full allocation, some partial and some not at all. Inconsistent with statute.”
So there you go.
The one time Walters tries sounding just a little bit reasonable, to merely save face rather than accuse his reiners-in of protecting pedophiles, stocking school libraries with pornography or being anti-America and anti-God, he still gets called out for it by the man soon to be the most powerful Republican in the house.
All of this after more recent developments than the confiscation of security funds came to light.
Remember when speaker McCall refused the request of more than 20 Republican house members to open a formal investigation of Walters on Tuesday of last week?
Would you believe only three days later, Friday, Walters called for an impeachment enquiry of himself?
“The speaker wants to impeach me for political advantage in the 2026 Governor’s race,” Walters said, “so let’s start the impeachment proceedings.”
Walters did not get his wish, but what he got instead may be far worse for him, because what McCall has agreed to, also announced Friday, is Walters be investigated for “spending concerns” by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) and it’s kind of shocker nobody thought of it sooner.
LOFT is not populated by legislators, but is, as M. Scott Carter and Murray Evans explained in this Oklahoman story, “an agency of the legislative branch that assists the Oklahoma House and Senate with budgetary recommendations for the funding of state government.”
That is, LOFT is not partisan, nor even bi-partisan, but non-partisan. Whatever it finds should not be filtered through any legislator’s political concerns and that could wind up being the worst of all possible worlds for Walters.
Now, it’s hard to imagine any more legislators being refused entry into state school board executive sessions.
It’s kind of hard to see Walters’ trying to leave town as long as the stuff he’s long not dealt with despite being required to deal with it remains not dealt with.
He may leave town, but now he’s bound to be hit over his political head for it and not just by Democrats.
Somebody, perhaps Oklahoma Voice’s Janelle Stecklein, who wrote this fantastic column, might come up with a “brash-meter,” charting the frequency with which Walters continues playing the hits: porn, pedophilia, woke mobs and indoctrination.
If he’s lucky, he’s been chastened. If not, his dissent into irrelevancy will happen even more quickly.
At least it’s happening.
It’s hard to watch people suffer.
Also, comeuppance is a wonderful thing.
Ryan Walters deserves it, perhaps like nobody else.
The scandals are coming so quickly we can't keep track. So. Tired. Keep shining your spotlight on him!
For two years in a row, OSDE refuses to authorize use of AP enrollment and test results by US News for their annual ranking of high schools ..... this lowered the ratings Oklahoma high schools ...why?
Here's a theory: if you want claim some achievements as OSDE, take an action that LOWERS the calculated ranking for several years, then start reporting correctly..... it'll look like school performance is going up and Ryan wah wah can claim credit for improving our schools .....no one will notice the cheating behind the scenes.