Oklahoma Education Chief Resigns to Lead Conservative Teachers’ Group

Oklahoma Education Superintendent Ryan Walters will step down from his state leadership position to take over as chief executive officer of the Teacher Freedom Alliance on Oct. 1, the organization announced Thursday.

The alliance, an entity of the Freedom Foundation, represents educators who oppose their local and national teachers’ unions.

“For decades, union bosses have poisoned our schools with politics and propaganda while abandoning parents, students, and good teachers,” Walters said in the Sept. 25 news release announcing his appointment.

“That ends today. We’re going to expose them, fight them, and take back our classrooms. At the Teachers Freedom Alliance, we’re giving educators real freedom; freedom from the liberal, woke agenda that has corrupted public education. We will arm teachers with the tools, support, and freedom they need, without forcing them to give up their values. This is a battle for the future of our kids, and we will not lose.”

Nationally, Walters has endorsed Christianity in public schools, partnered with conservative curriculum company PragerU, and implemented an “America First” test for teacher candidates outside the Sooner State that screens for progressive ideologies like transgenderism and critical race theory. The Republican’s final action as a state leader was making a deal with Turning Point USA chapters in all Oklahoma public schools.

Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe said Walters is the “freedom fighter” that the alliance needs to push back against teachers’ unions and indoctrination in public schools.

“Ryan understands that there’s no path to putting American education back on track that doesn’t involve eliminating the teachers’ unions from our classrooms,” Withe said in a news release.

The Teacher Freedom Alliance is a fairly new organization. About 500 teachers from several states attended its annual summit in July in Washington to network with other educators who share their conservative views and learn about how to opt out of their local unions.

There were several presentations on organizing community groups to push back against progressive curriculum and softened school discipline regulations, as well as the legal rights for teachers who refuse to provide instruction on gender ideology.

The organization also offers liability insurance to teachers who have left their unions.

Walters announced his resignation as education superintendent late Wednesday, with mixed reactions from state officials.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, also a Republican, called Walters’s tenure “an embarrassment to our state.”

“It’s time for a state superintendent of public instruction who will actually focus on quality in our public schools,” Drummond said in a Sept. 24 news release. “Our families, our students and our teachers deserve so much more.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.