# Ryan Walters **Ryan Walters** (b. 1985) is a [[Republican Party]] education official who served as Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction from January 2023 to September 2025. He became a national flashpoint for the [[Christian Right]]'s push to reshape public education — mandating Bible instruction in public schools, promoting [[PragerU]] content in classrooms, attacking "woke" curricula, and feuding with teachers' unions. He resigned to become CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, an anti-union group affiliated with the conservative Freedom Foundation. ## Background Walters was a high-school history teacher before entering politics. Governor [[Kevin Stitt]] appointed him Oklahoma's Secretary of Education in 2020, and he won the elected superintendent post in 2022 with strong support from the state's [[MAGA]] base. He positioned himself as a culture warrior from the start, framing public education as a battleground between traditional American values and progressive "indoctrination." ## Bible Mandate Walters's most nationally prominent action was ordering Oklahoma public schools to incorporate the Bible into curricula for grades 5 through 12, issued in June 2024. The mandate required every classroom to have a Bible available and directed teachers to use it as an instructional resource. Critics called it a direct violation of the [[First Amendment]] and the principle of [[Religious Liberty]] — ironically, a concept the [[Christian Right]] invokes selectively. The mandate faced immediate legal challenges and was rescinded by Walters's successor shortly after his departure. In March 2025, Walters announced plans to partner with country-music singer Lee Greenwood to solicit private donations for classroom Bibles after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million public-funding request. The episode illustrated the gap between Walters's rhetorical ambitions and the institutional resistance he faced even within a deep-red state. ## PragerU and Curriculum Wars Walters approved [[PragerU]] content for use in Oklahoma public schools in 2023, making Oklahoma one of the first states to formally integrate the conservative media outlet's materials into classroom instruction. PragerU's videos — which present right-wing talking points on topics from [[Critical Race Theory]] to climate change in a format designed to mimic educational content — became a flashpoint in the broader [[Culture War]] over what children are taught and who gets to decide. ## Anti-Union Activism and Resignation Walters's tenure was marked by constant confrontation with teachers' unions, which he characterized as agents of left-wing ideology. He publicly threatened the teaching licenses of educators who resisted his Bible mandate. On September 30, 2025, he resigned to become CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit that bills itself as helping educators "in their mission to develop free, moral, and upright American citizens." The organization is affiliated with the Freedom Foundation, a conservative group focused on undermining public-sector unions. The move was widely interpreted as a lateral shift from government power to movement infrastructure — trading the superintendent's office for a national platform to export the Oklahoma model to other states. ## Scandal and Pushback Walters's tenure generated significant opposition even from fellow Republicans. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond publicly condemned the "never-ending scandal and political drama" surrounding the office. A former Republican congressman called for accountability. The breadth of intra-party criticism was notable in a state where the GOP holds supermajorities at every level. His successor as superintendent moved quickly to rescind the Bible mandate and signaled no plans to distribute Bibles in classrooms — an implicit repudiation of Walters's signature policy. The speed of the reversal underscored how much of Walters's agenda depended on the force of his personal authority rather than durable institutional change. ## KB Significance Walters is a key node in the [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] — the network of politicians, organizations, and media outlets working to embed religious authority into public institutions. His career arc connects [[Dominionism]], [[Heritage Foundation]] education policy, the [[School Choice]] movement, [[Moms for Liberty]], and the broader project of dismantling the secular public-school system. His post-government pivot to the Teacher Freedom Alliance illustrates the revolving door between government office and movement organizations documented throughout the KB. He also exemplifies the [[Culture War]] strategy of using state-level elected offices as laboratories for policies too extreme for federal implementation — the same playbook [[Ron DeSantis]] has used in Florida and that the [[Council for National Policy]] has advocated for decades. ## See Also - [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] - [[Christian Nationalism]] - [[PragerU]] - [[Dominionism]] - [[Heritage Foundation]] - [[School Choice]] - [[Ten Commandments]] - [[Moms for Liberty]] - [[First Amendment]] - [[Culture War]]