Finally Standing Up To Walters

What’s an Oklahoma Republican to do?

For years, the GOP promoted itself as chief protector of parents’ rights. Don’t want your kids exposed to sex ed in school? Or forced to read certain books? Statehouse Republicans fought to establish opt out provisions.

Now, a grassroots group calling itself We’re Oklahoma Education – or WOKE – is demanding the same power for parents who don’t want their students force-fed Bible lessons, rightwing PragerU materials, or Superintendent Ryan Walters’ social studies standards that include election denialism.

What’s good for the goose? Not necessarily in Walters’ World.

In a statement reported by StateImpact Oklahoma, Walters decreed WOKE-generated waiver letters are “absolutely not enforceable – especially from a hyper-partisan organization like this.”

“This group, and other radicalized groups like them, will never have the opportunity to indoctrinate Oklahoma students with a woke, divisive and radicalized agenda. There is a specific process in place for parents to opt their child out.”

Yes, there is. And WOKE-created templates won’t – or shouldn’t – factor into what’s legally a decision between parents/guardians and local school districts. Nevertheless, publicity hound Walters never misses an opportunity to project onto others what he’s the master of: indoctrination.

Which, of course, does nothing to actually improve Oklahoma public education – which two decades ago ranked above the national average in most categories, but now scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

Perhaps that’s why Walters’ public utterances are almost always replete with three loaded words: woke, radical, indoctrination. If reality needs to be avoided, lob Molotov cocktails. Call it the shiny object approach to failed leadership.

Statehouse poohbahs – Republicans, all – clearly are tiring of Walters’ act. But they only need look in the mirror to see who’s to blame for allowing it to grow largely unchecked. It was just weeks ago, remember, House and Senate inaction enabled Walters’ social studies standards to take effect – without so much as a public debate or vote.

Yet, as the 2025 session closed, Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert and their colleagues became less reticent to call out Walters.

Paxton, for example, described as “absurd” the superintendent’s recent proposal to eliminate of state income and property taxes; Hilbert rejected it as “not a serious proposal.”

Both the House [90-0] and Senate [43-0] unanimously approved SJR 22 which rejected Walters’ cockamamie – and bigoted – orders that public schools demand proof of U.S. citizenship from students and that teachers pass the U.S. Naturalization test.

As for WOKE-encouraged opt-outs, Paxton told Oklahoma Voice: “[W]e give parents the ability to opt out of lots of things. If that’s what they want to opt out of, I would certainly support them being able to do that.”

Even Walters seems to recognize that invoking “woke, radical, indoctrination” isn’t likely to trump the sanctity of parental control: “We want parents to be able to make those decisions,” he told the online news service, before adding, “I think it’s a bad decision on their part.”

As it turns out, parents may not be forced to take action anyway. A lawsuit in state district court is challenging the process that yielded the new standards – revised last minute with input from out-of-state rightwing policy advocates and conservative media personalities, but without knowledge of most State Board of Education members, who nonetheless approved them.

A final thought: Just because legislative leaders finally pushed back against Walters’ worst impulses doesn’t mean they are doing enough for Oklahoma public schools.

While next fiscal year’s nearly $13 billion budget includes a $25 million hike to the base funding formula, that’s only half as much as the increase that will flow to private schools via the state’s voucher program. Worse, legislators are imposing, but not fully funding new mandates on public schools to raise teacher salaries and extend the academic year.

Which begs the question: Will statehouse Republicans ever regard public education as a priority, rather than a political punching bag?