Ryan Walters, a right-wing educator who drew criticism from across the political spectrum for his efforts to inject religion into public schools, will resign from his post as Oklahoma’s school superintendent.
He will join the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a conservative nonprofit group, as its chief executive, the organization announced Thursday on its website. “Walters fearlessly fights the woke liberal union mob,” the group said.
Mr. Walters was elected state superintendent in 2022. Throughout his tenure, he staked out conservative positions that often drew national controversy. In June 2024, for example, he issued a directive that all Oklahoma public schools must teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments.
He recently said that all Oklahoma high schools should have a chapter of Turning Point USA, the right-wing youth group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month. And during his tenure, the state adopted social studies learning standards that echoed President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
When President Trump was assembling his current cabinet, Mr. Walters was discussed as a possible nominee for secretary of education. He has also indicated interest in running for governor. He was clearly politically ambitious, but consistently drew criticism from liberals and also some conservatives. They worried that his policies blurred the separation of church and state, and injected ideology into the classroom.
He announced this year that Oklahoma would require some teachers from out of state who wished to work in Oklahoma to pass a test meant to screen for what he called “woke indoctrination.”
Mr. Walters is the son of an Oklahoma minister. He began his career as a celebrated Advanced Placement history and government teacher in his hometown, McAlester, Okla. At the time, he kept his personal beliefs fairly quiet. He ascended into politics after taking a role leading an education nonprofit focused on issues like expanding access to charter schools and private-school vouchers.
In his political career, he has been a champion of a rising movement of younger Christian conservatives who seek to inject religion into public life. He has spoken about his own churchgoing and his belief in traditional family structures. He has also said that he was shaped by the experience of seeing social studies educators across the country inject liberal ideology into the classroom, including critiques of the nation’s founding.
His tenure as state superintendent has been rocky, and his policies have regularly put Oklahoma’s schools at the center of the nation’s culture wars.
Mr. Walters has promoted prayer in schools and has sought to remove classic works of literature from libraries, deeming them pornographic. He supported a plan for a publicly funded religious charter school in Oklahoma, but the Supreme Court rejected the plan earlier this year.
He has been accused of running a disorganized state education department, and has had trouble holding onto staff.
Most recently, he has had a tense relationship with members of the state Board of Education, the body he leads. The board met without him in August, after he was accused of having inappropriate material playing on his office television during an official meeting.
Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.
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