Walters filed more than $4,000 in claims for out-of-state travel expenses during his first year in office, according to reimbursement forms obtained by The Frontier. He expensed the trips despite an order from the Governor’s office banning public spending for most out-of-state travel.

• Walters claimed $489 in travel reimbursements to cover the cost of mileage, per diem and a hotel room in the Dallas area in April 2023 and attend the premiere of the anti-abortion horror film Nefarious. The film was shot in Oklahoma City and is about a serial killer who is set for execution but is possessed by a demon.

• He spent $1,102 for airfare, lodging and other expenses for a trip to National Harbor, Maryland, later that same month to speak at a conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. 

• Walters also billed the state between $1,025 and $1,220 for a speaking appearance at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit in Philadelphia in June, according to travel forms that included estimated airfare costs. Moms for Liberty covered the cost of his hotel room. 

• He claimed another $552 for airfare, mileage and per diem for an appearance as the keynote speaker at the Freedom Foundation’s Teachers for Freedom Summit in Denver in July. The event featured sessions such as “Teachers Unions: An International Problem” and “Is woke curriculum taking over your subject?”  

• Walters traveled to Washington D.C. for two days in August. The estimated total cost of Walters’ travel including airfare and lodging was between $989 and $1,067, documents show. The trip was for “policy meetings,” according to a state travel form and airfare estimates. An itinerary shows Walters had two meetings with representatives from conservative think tanks but most of the trip was spent making media appearances, including talk shows affiliated with the far-right media outlet The Epoch Times, which has ties to the Falun Gong religious movement and a podcast hosted by the president of the Heritage Foundation. 

Walters’ first stop during his August trip to Washington was for coffee with a representative from Fox News in charge of booking guests for the program America’s Newsroom to discuss “national media opportunities,” according to a travel itinerary. Jenna Thomas, Walters’ chief of staff at the State Department of Education, accompanied him on the trip, billing the state for an additional $1,059 in travel expenses. 

State travel request forms require a manager’s signature, but as the head of the Oklahoma State Department of Education, Walters signed off on his own trip expenses. The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services paid the travel claims. A spokesperson for the agency said Walters submitted all the required documentation for the trips.

Dan Isett, a spokesperson for Walters at the State Department of Education, did not answer The Frontier’s requests for more information about the purpose of the trips and why Walters was able to approve his own travel requests.

“Oklahomans are not surprised or fooled by another attack and fake controversy from the liberal media. Superintendent Walters will never stop leading Oklahoma and the nation to reform our schools, get back to basics, and improve student academic outcomes,” Isett said in an email. “There is a story to be told and travel throughout Oklahoma and around the country is a normal part of the duties of any statewide office holder. Superintendent Walters continues to meticulously protect Oklahoma taxpayers from the wasteful spending we’ve seen under previous administrations.”

Walters has rapidly become a rising star in conservative politics. Since taking office as State Superintendent in January 2023, he’s booked appearances on Fox News to talk about the “woke ideology” in public schools and testified before Congress in support of Republican lawmakers’ efforts to investigate educational programs funded by the Chinese government. He is also a frequent guest on right-wing podcasts and talk shows. 

The Frontier obtained records documenting Walters’ travel expenses from Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, who requested the information from the State Department of Education last year. Boren said she is concerned Walters has put personal promotion above his duties to oversee public education in the state. 

“It’s more fun to stir the pot and get pats on the head and lovey-doveys from the radical right than it is to actually ensure that we recruit and retain teachers,” Boren said. 

Walters’ administration has touted a recruitment program it says has brought 117 out-of-state teachers into Oklahoma classrooms. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt issued a moratorium on all non-essential, state-funded, out-of-state travel in 2019 that remains in effect. Stitt has banned most out-of-state trips for state officers and employees unless the travel is “critical to the performance of core agency functions,” to obtain professional accreditation not available in Oklahoma or for matters involving the federal government.

As a separately elected official, Walters did not seek permission from the Governor’s office for his travel, said Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt. 

“Governor Stitt thinks all elected officials and government employees should be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Cave told The Frontier.

During Walters’ two-day trip to the Dallas area last year, he attended the red-carpet premiere of the film Nefarious and appeared on conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s podcast. Beck also made a cameo appearance in the movie. 

Walters’ room at the Drury Inn & Suites in Frisco, Texas, was booked under the group name Nefarious Movie LLC, according to a travel reimbursement form. The form shows Walters claimed mileage for the drive from the Beck-affiliated American Journey Experience museum next door to the studio where Beck records his podcast to a movie theater in Plano on the same date that the Nefarious film premiere was held there. Ted Cruz, the U.S. Senator from Texas, also attended the premiere. 

Walters praised ​​Nefarious and spoke about attending the premiere in Texas during an interview in May 2023 with conservative talk show host Steve Deace, who co-wrote the film. 

“Folks are getting to see on the big screen what we are up against, what evil looks like in today’s time, what Satan is doing in the world today, ” Walters said. “It is an absolutely incredible film.”

In interviews, Deace credited Walters with helping to end a film crew strike on the set of the film. Walters “went to war for us,” Deace said.  

Walters wrote on a travel expense form that his trip to Texas was to meet with “educational stakeholders,” but he didn’t include any details about who he met with or what was discussed.  

Isett did not provide the names of the stakeholders Walters met with when The Frontier asked for more detailed information.

“Yes, he was able to meet with many essential stakeholders and spread Oklahoma’s story of how we are fighting wokeism in the classroom,” Isett responded in an email. “All of Ryan Walters’ travel has been essential to attract new teachers, fight against radical wokeism and the over-sexualization and grooming of our kids. There is nothing more important than Oklahoma’s mission to educate and protect our kids.” 

The post Oklahoma paid for Ryan Walters’ travel for speaking engagements, media appearances and a horror movie premiere appeared first on The Frontier.

In March, Walters announced the creation of an email address — dubbed Parent Watch — where concerned parents could notify the Oklahoma State Department of Education about materials in school classrooms and libraries. The Frontier filed an open records request for emails people sent to the Parent Watch account. 
Some people signed the state email account up for news alerts from food delivery services, newsletters for LGBTQ+ news, sex toys, and a Peppa Pig Theme Park in Florida. One person emailed the lyrics to the songs Teenagers by My Chemical Romance, Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega and Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice.

Read the emails sent to OSDE

Part 1 | Part 2

Many sent links to news stories detailing sexual misconduct by religious figures and Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma and across the country. One person emailed a lengthy portion of the script to the Bee Movie, a 2007 film written by Jerry Seinfeld.

The Frontier reviewed more than 4,000 pages of emails the public sent to the Parent Watch account during the first week of its existence but found only one complaint from a concerned parent that appeared to be submitted in good faith. 

That complaint was about the novel Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert. The person said the school librarian recommended the book to her daughter, who is in junior high school. But her daughter stopped reading the book because she “didn’t feel comfortable with the content.”

The book description reads: “‘Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute’ follows two main characters Bradley and Celine who were once best friends, but are now essentially enemies. The two can barely stand to be around each other.” The emailer said the book contained sexual references and bad language.

It’s unclear if the State Department of Education or Walters followed up with the parent about the complaint. The person’s name and email address are redacted and the school where the book was allegedly kept was not named in the email, and Walters, State Department of Education spokesman Dan Issett and Chief Policy Advisor Matt Langston did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Even seemingly serious responses eventually veered into parody. One person wrote to say their son was being banned from chanting “Let’s go Brandon,” a derogatory phrase aimed at President Joe Biden, at his high school.

“We will win,” the person wrote before giving away the gag. “We cannot be defeated by intelligence.”

Since taking office in January, Walters has cemented himself as the state’s top-elected culture warrior. One of his first moves was to support revoking teaching certifications for two Norman teachers who opposed a state law limiting instruction on race and gender. He sought to ban books, ranted about a Chinese language course, told U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona that “shouldn’t be allowed” in Oklahoma, and pushed schools to teach content from the conservative media outlet PragerU. He spoke at a national Moms For Liberty summit, an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group, and called for the U.S. Department of Education to be disbanded. He called teacher unions “terrorist organizations,” and successfully pushed for Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist to leave office while teasing a possible state takeover of the district.

People wrote to the Parent Watch email account to vent about Walters’ remarks and policies.

While running for office, Walters repeated an urban legend about schools putting kitty litter in classrooms for students who identified as cats. The story is a myth, but one emailer pounced on the opportunity to turn it into a joke as well.

“If you had to pick, would you rather (put) Pamela Anderson’s head on a Garfield body or Garfield head on Pam Anderson’s body,” they asked. “This question is no more invalid than people asking about litter boxes in schools.”

Many wrote to express concerns about banning some books from schools.

“I am extremely worried about the idea that schools would restrict/ban books from their classrooms,” one person wrote. “This is censorship, and it is not part of our American values.”

Other emailers targeted Walters directly.

“Ryan Walters is a disgrace to Oklahoma and I pray he resigns in disgrace,” one person wrote.

“Ryan Walters needs to be watched. What an unhinged creep,” another wrote.

Some emailers bypassed the jokes or insults in favor of pointed questions.

“I have serious concerns about Tulsa Public Schools and the constant attacks from our state superintendent on it,” one person wrote. “These kids are pawns in a fabricated political scheme from the right.”

Many called for the Bible to be barred from classrooms because of its depictions of sex and violence.

“It promotes the following,” one person wrote, “Incest, Murder of and by multiple characters, Adultery, Genocide, Child sacrifice, Polyamorous relationships, Sex trafficking, Human trafficking, Depictions of sex/body parts, Swear words.”

The post Ryan Walters asked for tips on inappropriate material in Oklahoma schools, people sent jokes and jeers appeared first on The Frontier.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters has been at odds with Tulsa school leaders even before he was elected in November. Walters has claimed Tulsa Public Schools is failing students, citing low reading scores from state report cards. He has also criticized Tulsa schools for “financial mismanagement, referring to a former employee accused of embezzling as much as $95,000, according to the district’s calculation. Walters has said as much as $1 million was embezzled, though district officials have pushed back on that claim.

Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist is expected to step down by September as the district tries to stave off a state takeover. The Tulsa school board is set to vote on a separation agreement with Gist during an emergency meeting on Wednesday. 

“Making the decision to leave Team Tulsa is the hardest thing I have ever done,” Gist said in an email. “It has been a dream come true to serve and lead this team in the schools where I grew up, the schools that shaped me into an educator, a leader, a human being. I’m proud of what we’ve done here, together, in the hometown that I love.”

Walters said in a statement that he was “pleased to see” Gist leave Tulsa Public Schools.

“I’ve been crystal clear that TPS needs a dramatic change in leadership,” he said. 

“From day one, I called for the removal of Gist in order to get the district on a path to success. I am optimistic this is a step in the right direction.”

The Tulsa World reported that TPS’ board is set to vote on the appointment of Dr. Ebony Johnson, a McClain High School graduate who became a teacher and later served in public school administration, as Gist’s successor.

Johnson “is a lifelong Tulsan, a stellar educator, a strong leader, and a remarkable human being,” Gist said in her letter. “With the leadership of Dr. Johnson, our team will keep the work of our plan on track and will reach even higher.”

Walters has threatened a state takeover of the school district, saying “all options are on the table” when it comes to the district, a plan local officials have argued against and appears to lack support from Gov. Kevin Stitt.

“I don’t know what a takeover is,” Stitt told the Tulsa World. “I believe in local control. I think the local board needs to address that.”

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said earlier this month that Tulsa does not “want” or “need” a takeover of the city’s school district. Bynum wrote a letter Aug. 18 to the state board of education, saying he had met with both Walters and district leadership, and wanted to “unequivocally” state that a takeover of the school system would “be an affront to the democratic principles of self government upon which our country was founded.” 

Walters said at a press conference earlier this month that Tulsa Schools needs to shore up its financial reporting, boost reading proficiency scores and raise its grade on the state’s education report card.

The governor’s office previously targeted Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist and the district for its decision to keep classes remote during the coronavirus pandemic, as Stitt was urging Oklahoma’s public schools to open while the virus was still sweeping across the country.

Gist called Stitt a “bully,” and Tulsa schools stayed closed longer than surrounding districts like Broken Arrow and Bixby. The school system eventually opened for in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year, though Gist and Stitt still traded barbs over in-school mask mandates. 

The Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education has an special meeting planned for Wednesday night, a little more than 12 hours before the state board meeting set for Thursday morning. 

Celebrating his victory as State Superintendent on election night in  November, Walters told supporters that “Oklahoma won’t go woke.”  

He’s used his office to publicly accuse some teachers of trying to politically indoctrinate students. 

On Tuesday, Walters retweeted a tweet that included an edited video from the far-right Twitter account Libs of TikTok that often targets teachers it believes are “woke.” The video focused on an elementary school librarian who works at Union Public Schools in Tulsa.

The librarian posted a video and wrote she was pushing a “radical liberal agenda,” which she stated was “teaching kids to love books and be kind.”

“Democrats say it doesn’t exist,” Walters tweeted. “The liberal media denies the issue. Even some Republicans hide from it. Woke ideology is real and I am here to stop it.”

Union’s Ellen Ochoa Elementary was locked down for a time on Tuesday following a bomb threat school officials said was related to the video Walters retweeted. 

The post With ‘all options’ available and the upcoming exit of its Superintendent, Tulsa awaits fate of its school system appeared first on The Frontier.

A parent from the group Moms for Liberty had complained about the book during the previous year, although her son was allowed to read something else. The Tulsa County chapter of Moms For Liberty said in a statement they agree with the history of the Tulsa Race Massacre being taught but don’t support the idea that any person today is responsible for the event.

“We cried. I cried. The assistant superintendent cried. She felt awful,” Bixby ninth-grade history teacher Jaime Lee said. 

Bixby administrators Rob Miller and Jamie Milligan recommended the educators teaching “Dreamland Burning” review the lesson and cautioned them that the district might be unable to protect teachers from punishments under Oklahoma House Bill 1775, like losing their teaching certifications. The district could also be penalized with an accreditation downgrade. 

Miller told The Frontier he wasn’t concerned with the lesson’s content, but more with how state education leaders were interpreting the law after a vote to downgrade the accreditation status of Tulsa and Mustang Public Schools in 2022 for alleged violations. 

Lee said her administrators were supportive throughout the review process. And, after considering potential consequences, she and her colleagues collectively decided to stop teaching the lesson.

Lee still teaches a nearly month-long unit on the Tulsa Race Massacre. But now she sends parents an email a week in advance so they can access her lessons and opt to have their children sit out of parts they aren’t comfortable with.

Two years after the passage of HB 1775, educators say a chilling effect has fallen on classrooms in teaching on complicated subjects like the Tulsa Race Massacre. The law includes an exception for material in state educational standards like the massacre, but four teachers told The Frontier they avoid some topics because they fear punishment. 

In July, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters drew international backlash when he said he supports instruction on the Tulsa Race Massacre, but he doesn’t think students should learn that the event is linked to inherent racism.  

HB 1775 prohibits students from learning eight concepts about race and gender. The ban includes teaching that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive” and that people bear “responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.” 

Putnam City North High School government teacher Aaron Baker has the eight concepts printed and pasted on the wall of his classroom to help him avoid violating the law. 

Baker said he thought HB 1775 had no teeth until the State Board of Education’s vote to downgrade the accreditation status of Tulsa and Mustang Public Schools for violating the law. That, coupled with Walters’ campaign against critical race theory and calls to revoke a Norman teacher’s certification for sharing information on how to access banned books, has left some teachers petrified to teach complex historical topics.  

Rep. Sherrie Conley, R-Newcastle, one of the authors of HB 1775, said the law is intended to prevent teachers from teaching critical race theory — which posits that race is a social construct and racism is embedded in systems that uphold racial inequality.

Conley said if there’s a historical consensus that the Tulsa Race Massacre was caused by racism, then teachers should feel safe to teach it without violating the law. She said students should be able to feel upset about what they learn regarding the destruction of the Greenwood district, but teachers shouldn’t tell white students to feel guilty about it. 

Conley told The Frontier she thinks the Tulsa Race Massacre was motivated by race but hesitates to say the perpetrators were racist. 

“It’s just a terrible tragedy in our state, and whether or not it was actually racism that caused the thoughts of the people that started it — we can try to speculate but to know for sure, I don’t think that we can,” Conley said.

Conley believes there’s a lack of understanding from teachers on what the law means. She said she thinks educators could benefit from training to clarify what they can and can’t teach about history and an analysis of their curriculum to ensure it doesn’t include banned topics. 

Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, another author of HB 1775, also told The Frontier he believed the law was needed to keep critical race theory out of Oklahoma classrooms. 

“Critical race theory is not a good thing and it never will be,” West said. “We have to teach our history. We have to teach it no matter what, but we don’t add or take away from it. It should be taught. And the Tulsa Race Massacre should be taught because there’s lessons to be learned. We’ve got to know our history.” 

But West said he didn’t know of any school districts where critical race theory is being taught.

What Oklahoma students learn about the massacre

Oklahoma’s academic standards have required education on the Tulsa Race Massacre since 2002. The standards require freshman and 11th-grade U.S. history classes to include lessons on the topic, without mandating any specific curriculum. History classes are required to examine multiple points of view regarding the evolution of race relations in Oklahoma. 

The standards were updated in 2019 to include the emergence of the Black Wall Street in Greenwood, the causes of the massacre and its continued social and economic impact and the role labels play in understanding historical events, such as past references to the destruction of Greenwood as a riot instead of a massacre. 

The state department paired these with a resource for teachers in 2020 to help clarify the standards and provide recommendations for things like lesson plans. 

Walters said in July he is continuing to work to develop an “even more robust curriculum” around the Tulsa Race Massacre. As state superintendent, Walters can suggest changes to Oklahoma’s academic standards, but he cannot mandate a specific curriculum or dictate how  teachers should teach the standards. 

The Frontier reached out to Walters multiple times asking for clarification on what changes he hoped to make and didn’t receive a response before publication. 

Emily Harris, the K-12 social studies academic content manager for Tulsa Public Schools, said Tulsa’s curriculum surrounding the Tulsa Race Massacre hasn’t changed since the passage of HB 1775. 

Third-grade students learn about discrimination and segregation in Tulsa by watching an animated version of the Dr. Seuss story “The Sneetches.” They also read the book “Up from the Ashes,” which talks about the development, destruction and rebuilding of Greenwood from a child’s perspective. 

Sixth-grade students learn about the gentrification of Black Wall Street in geography. Eighth-grade Oklahoma history students learn about racial violence in the Tulsa Race Massacre. High school students in U.S. history analyze cases of racial terror after World War I, including the Tulsa Race Massacre. Students also tour the Greenwood Rising Black Wall St. History Center, which was established in honor of the massacre’s centennial in 2021.

Tulsa historian Hannibal Johnson, author of “Up from the Ashes,” who also served as a curator for Greenwood Rising, said it’s impossible to teach about the Tulsa Race Massacre without including its root in systemic racism. 

“This ideological notion of white supremacy and black subordination is ultimately at the root of these events,” Johnson said. “We shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge that horrific history, because if we don’t first acknowledge it, we can’t begin to remediate.” 

But some teachers have become more cautious about what they include in their instruction about topics like the massacre since the passage of HB 1775. 

At Union Public Schools, ninth-grade Oklahoma history teacher Will Buffington said lesson planning has become a more careful process for him and others in his department. They worked together to ensure lessons didn’t include things people could misconstrue as breaking the law ahead of time so they could address potential misinterpretations. 

When Shawna Mott-Wright graduated from Daniel Webster High School in 1998, she knew about the Tulsa Race Massacre when others in her Oklahoma State University courses didn’t because of her Tulsa Public School teachers. Now, as a Tulsa Public School teacher and president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association, she said she has spoken with educators who have quit over HB 1775. 

“Because of all of the rhetoric surrounding it, they’re afraid they’re going to inadvertently say or do something wrong,” Mott-Wright said. 

As Mott-Wright prepares to send her daughter back to a Tulsa Public School this August, she worries about what long-lasting effect the law will have on students. 

“If we don’t learn about history, we are doomed to repeat it,” she said. “Some people are out there spouting some nasty, hateful rhetoric, and maybe they want it repeated. But most of us don’t.” 

A law with far-reaching consequences 

In 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against defendants including former Attorney General John O’Connor, former State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister and the state Regents for Higher Education, arguing HB 1775 limited the First Amendment rights of teachers and students. Anthony Crawford, an Oklahoma City English teacher who asked that his district not be named because he’s not authorized to speak on its behalf, was one of two teachers who joined as plaintiffs. 

When he first learned about the law, Crawford asked a district administrator about its impact on his teaching. The administrator reassured him he’d be safe if he stuck to the state standards, which provide some flexibility in how he teaches his material. 

But Crawford said he’s gradually noticed a loss of classroom control. He said he’s been asked by his superintendent to leave books out of his classroom like “Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America,” which analyzes racial inequalities in the United States and how Black Americans can become more economically and politically competitive, and “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,” which argues slavery and continued oppression has caused psychological trauma across generations.

Crawford said he believes these books helped students build arguments and connect classroom material to their personal experiences. Now he’s signed onto the lawsuit because he fears his teaching certificate could be revoked.

“I probably put myself in a bad position but in the greatest position ever,” Crawford said. 

John Waldron, D-Tulsa, taught history at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School for 20 years. Waldron said he always took teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre seriously, working in a minority-majority district and in a building that survived the massacre. 

But Waldron said he now fears for the future of teachers covering difficult subjects. 

In 2022 the State Board of Education voted to downgrade Mustang Public Schools’ accreditation after a complaint that a middle school student felt uncomfortable being asked questions in a team-building activity whether anyone in the room ever experienced discrimination. 

Waldron said the punishment could have fallen on just the teacher, who could have taken a warning and changed her lesson plan. But instead, the State Board voted to downgrade the school district’s accreditation. This lower accreditation means the district is subject to extra state oversight and indicates a district failed to meet standards in a way that “seriously detracts” from the quality of its educational program.

And now there’s a delay in Tulsa Public Schools’ accreditation status until the Board of Education’s Aug. 24 meeting. Walters claimed the district “intentionally misled the department about funding spent on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.” 

“HB 1775 has been weaponized by this superintendent and the State Board of Education, appointed by Governor Stitt, to go after entire school districts, and the effect will be to intimidate teachers in just about every classroom,” Waldron said. 

Since HB 1775, Milligan said Bixby administrators talk a lot more about how they can support teachers amid legislation endangering their teaching certifications. They’ve sought to find a balance between helping them teach state standards safely and accurately while allowing them to maintain autonomy and enhance student engagement. 

Miller said they’re cognizant that although they want parents to have a voice in their child’s education, it only takes one complaint for them to circumvent the district to go to the State Board, who can take action without giving districts much recourse.

“There’s no way to defend ourselves, and that sort of makes you feel like you’re walking on eggshells a little bit,” Miller said. “I know these teachers feel that way too because they’re passionate about what they teach. They’re not trying to indoctrinate kids. They’re trying to help kids become open-minded critical thinkers about all the perspectives associated with a historical event.” 

Lee said she makes it a priority to build trust with her students to teach complicated topics. But HB 1775 and the current political climate in education have prevented her from being completely open with her students and engaging in conversations on political issues that naturally come up in a history class. 

She fears she could lose her job if a parent misunderstood her intentions. Instead, she tells students to come back and talk to her after they’ve graduated.

The post After a state law banning some lessons on race, Oklahoma teachers tread lightly on the Tulsa Race Massacre appeared first on The Frontier.

Facing the possibility of another accreditation downgrade, Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist called the process “completely untransparent” at a press conference on Wednesday. She said she had concerns that the district has been targeted by “inflammatory threats” and “a process that is being politicized for a very specific personal agenda.”     

The Oklahoma State Board of Education had been expected to vote Thursday on whether to restore or lower the accreditation status of Tulsa Public Schools after the district was penalized last year for using teacher training materials on racial bias. 

But Matt Langston, Chief Policy Advisor for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, told The Frontier on Wednesday that the State Board would not review the district’s accreditation at this month’s meeting after new alleged deficiencies “due to the severity of the allegations and issues.” 

Despite the hearing being less than a day away, Gist said the district has not heard from OSDE about this apparent change of plans. She says she still expects the board to vote on Tulsa schools’ accreditation, as they will with all other districts, and plans to attend the meeting to advocate on behalf of the district.

“I only learned that we would not be a part of tomorrow’s annual process on Twitter about 45 minutes ago, so I’m not aware of a change,” said Gist.

Gist said the two violations involved a report to the state Department of Education that was filed late and an audit that found $343,000 in questionable payments to vendors. 

State Superintendent Ryan Walters hinted at support of a further downgrade for the Tulsa district at a press conference on Friday, alluding to “many, many violations” over the past year. But he didn’t provide specific examples and left without taking further questions.

The board ruled in July 2022 that Tulsa teacher training materials violated House Bill 1775, a state law that bans some concepts about race and gender from being taught in Oklahoma public schools. The downgrade involved a professional development video titled “Cultural Competence and Racial Bias” that was offered to teachers via a third-party vendor. The board moved to penalize the district even though a state Department of Education attorney found that Tulsa did not directly violate the law.

State Department of Education staff initially recommended demoting Tulsa schools to “accredited with a deficiency.” However, the State Board, composed mostly of members appointed by Governor Kevin Stitt, decided to go a step further and downgraded the school district to “accredited with a warning.”

There are five levels of accreditation:

• Accredited with no deficiencies
• Accredited with deficiencies
• Accredited with a warning
• Accredited with probation
• Unaccredited

If the board lowers Tulsa schools’ accreditation further, the district would be placed on probation. 

This action would not cost the district any funding, but Leslie Berger, a former spokeswoman for OSDE, told The Frontier last year that it could “negatively impact” the district. Families could decide to move their students to other districts or private schools, which would reduce state funding for Tulsa, she said.  

When placed on probation in 2021, the Western Heights School district had 90 days to correct the issues or face further penalties, including full loss of accreditation and state funding.

The State Board was also expected to review Mustang Public Schools’ accreditation status at the Thursday meeting. But the State Department of Education has not clarified yet if Mustang would still have its accreditation reviewed at this month’s meeting. 

Mustang’s accreditation status was also downgraded last year for violating HB 1775. The downgrade came after the district self-reported a violation related to a voluntary learning exercise where students were asked if they had “ever been called names regarding your race, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, or physical/learning disability and felt uncomfortable.”

A parent complained that the activity made her child feel “uncomfortable.”

Kirk Wilson, a spokesman for Mustang, told The Frontier on Monday that the district reserved comment until after the meeting. 

The post Gist concerned TPS has been targeted by ‘a process that is being politicized for a very specific personal agenda’  appeared first on The Frontier.

Read the full story here. 

Here are five takeaways from The Frontier’s in-depth reporting: 

1. There are no plans to replace $35.7 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding that helped hire 201 school counselors and other support staff for 181 school districts in 2021. The funds helped cover half of counselors’ pay and benefits for three years. Funding expires at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. 

2. The Oklahoma Legislature rejected former State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s requests for around $58 million to hire more school counselors each of her last three years in office between 2018 and 2021. 

3. State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who took office in 2023, didn’t ask for any additional funding to hire more counselors in his budget request this year. 

4. Oklahoma is giving educators raises between $3,000 and $6,000 this year, increasing starting pay for school counselors to $40,991. But counselors, who must have a master’s degree, still only receive about $1,000 a year more than teachers with bachelor’s degrees. 

5. Unlike neighboring Arkansas and Texas, Oklahoma doesn’t have mandatory school counselor-to-student ratios or require counselors to spend a minimum amount of time on direct and indirect services. Oklahoma counselors said they often take on duties like coordinating testing and meetings for special education plans, which the American School Counselor Association deems inappropriate for school counselors. 

The post Five things to know about Oklahoma’s school counselor shortage appeared first on The Frontier.

During her first year as an elementary school counselor in Oklahoma, Eryn Wallis spent Wednesdays teaching guidance lessons in a rotation that included PE, art and music classes. There was no assistant principal at Freedom Elementary in Sapulpa, which has about 500 students, so Wallis also had to do administrative tasks like coordinating testing and meetings for special education plans.

These are all duties the American School Counselor Association deems inappropriate for school counselors. Wallis got her principal certification to fill them.

Wallis’ favorite days were spent helping students who needed support. She could pick them up from class to take walks outside or lay on the floor to take deep breaths and look at the ceiling. She was also the person on staff who handled chronic absenteeism, child custody issues, and suspected abuse and neglect. 

“When a school counselor is not available, it can be difficult on the student, and it can be difficult on other staff to figure out how to handle a situation,” she said. 

Unlike neighboring Arkansas and Texas, Oklahoma doesn’t have mandatory school counselor-to-student ratios or require counselors to spend a minimum amount of time on direct and indirect services. Oklahoma requires counseling services in elementary schools, but not necessarily by a counselor. The state does require middle and high schools to have counselors.

Wallis left Oklahoma in 2020 and now works as a school counselor in Arkansas, where the pay is about the same. But she said money doesn’t matter if school counselors don’t feel respected. 

Oklahoma is facing a critical shortage of school counselors and hasn’t increased state funding to help fix the problem. The state’s student-to-counselor ratio was 398:1 at the end of 2022, while the American School Counselor Association recommends 250:1. The Oklahoma Legislature rejected State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s requests for around $58 million to hire more school counselors each of her last three years in office between 2018 and 2021.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who took office in 2023, didn’t ask for any additional funding to hire more counselors in his budget request this year. There are also no plans to replace millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funding the state used to hire more counselors that will expire at the end of this coming school year. The Frontier reached out multiple times to Walters for comment but didn’t receive a response before publication. 

Oklahoma is giving educators raises between $3,000 and $6,000 this year, increasing starting pay for school counselors to $40,991. But counselors, who must have a master’s degree, still only receive about $1,000 a year more than teachers with bachelor’s degrees. 

School counselors told The Frontier they need more funding, higher pay and appreciation for their unique roles.

Counselors juggle multiple roles

More than a week after teachers went home for the summer, four counselors stayed hard at work in their offices at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. The counselors each have a caseload of over 300 students, giving guidance on academics, college, jobs and social-emotional learning. 

These services are balanced with classroom time, one-on-one enrollment meetings, data management, and booking visits for college recruiters. 

“I don’t know how we ever, if we ever, meet 80% face-to-face with students,” said Gina Hansen, who counsels 10-12 grade students.

It’s common for school counselors to juggle multiple roles in Oklahoma. Only 67% of counselors in the state work full-time in one school, and 22% are assigned to multiple schools across grade levels, according to Oklahoma staffing data. Another 10% of school counselors are also teachers.

In 2020, Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, introduced Senate Bill 1381 to protect school counselors’ time. The bill would have prohibited counselors from serving as test coordinators and required state assessment vendors to pay for sufficient staff to cover testing responsibilities. But the bill failed in committee after lawmakers raised concerns about its application in schools. 

“Even teachers and former administrators in education that were on that committee, their biggest problem with my bill was if school counselors don’t do it, who’s gonna do it?” Boren said. 

Before she was elected, Boren worked as a school counselor in Oklahoma schools. Working at Little Axe High School between 2009 and 2010, Boren said she spent 20% of her contracted time on testing. This is another role the American School Counselor Association considers inappropriate for school counselors. 

No money to replace federal relief funds that helped hire counselors 

In 2021, Oklahoma directed $35.7 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to help hire 201 counselors and other support staff for 181 school districts. The funds could help cover half of counselors’ pay and benefits for three years. But there’s no state plan to continue funding those jobs once the program expires at the end of the 2023-24 school year. 

Pretty Water Public School, which serves pre-kindergarten to 8th-grade students in Sapulpa, didn’t have a dedicated school counselor. The school received $96,000 in COVID-19 relief money over three years for a full-time counselor. But the money didn’t quite cover the cost. 

Trish Hamilton, an administrator for the district, told The Frontier that the school only had enough funds to hire a counselor for one year before eliminating the job. Pretty Water has now returned to contracting out for counseling services as needed.

Former State Department of Education school counselor specialist Sarah Kirk, who left her job in June, said she heard from many districts that the federal relief money was vital. She fears Oklahoma’s student-to-counselor ratio will only grow as funding comes to an end.

“We’ve tried really hard to help school districts make that sustainable, but we know that if funding continues to get cut, something’s gotta go,” Kirk said. “Unfortunately, often we see that, and these are considered extra positions — although, I don’t think that’s true.” 

A “nicety versus a necessity”

Studies show that students with access to school counselors have better academic and behavioral outcomes and improved college and career readiness. But 10-12 grade counselor Mary Beth Lykins said she feels like she and her coworkers at Booker T. Washington are always fighting for recognition.

Jennifer Sack, a 10-12 grade counselor at Booker T. Washington, said she and her colleagues have advocated against legislation that could dictate how they do their jobs. In 2022, she successfully fought to keep language out of a bill at the Oklahoma Legislature that would have required counselors to tell parents if they planned to give students materials related to sexual orientation and gender identity.  

School counselors are also sometimes tasked with teaching lessons on kindness and conflict resolution, a practice sometimes called social-emotional learning. Some conservative Oklahoma lawmakers have equated such lessons with political indoctrination. 

Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, introduced a bill in 2022 that would have outlawed social-emotional learning in public schools. The bill died in session, but Walters later equated social-emotional learning to “far-left beliefs,” saying such materials were inappropriate in public schools. 

Sack said she and others often feel their jobs are seen as a “nicety versus a necessity.” Kirk, Wallis and all of Booker T. Washington’s counselors said there is a lack of professional development opportunities geared toward counselors. They’ve been lumped into training focused on teachers instead. 

Lykins said she’s happy about Oklahoma’s recent pay increase for educators, but she had to work 25 years before reaching the state’s current starting pay of about $40,000.  

“Not that I would want anybody to start below what I started at. But that’s how bad it is,” Lykins said. 

Sack said the state could improve its recruitment of school counselors by rewarding staff who have more training and education with better pay. Counselors at Booker T. Washington like Hansen, who are licensed professional counselors, could pursue other higher-paying jobs with their experience. But they stay because they say they love their students. 

“It’s crazy here, and there’s a lot of pressures going on here, but I wouldn’t enjoy this, I wouldn’t be in right now at work if I didn’t really want to be here,” Lykins said. “And I do really want to be here.” 

But as Oklahoma prepares to lose funding for 201 counselors, emergency certifications are trending upward. According to the most recent data, Oklahoma’s emergency-certified counselors have jumped 39% from 89 for the 2017-2018 school year to 124 in the 2020-2021 school year. 

Districts have one more year to determine whether they have enough funds to support the salaries of the counselors they hired through the federal grant. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Eryn Wallis’ job. It has been corrected.

The post Oklahoma faces critical shortage of school counselors appeared first on The Frontier.

Update: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 7, 2023, to include a response from Ryan Walters.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters was met with a crowd of protestors at a speaking engagement at the Norman Public Library on Thursday. In one tense exchange, an audience member confronted Walters about his definition of critical race theory and asked how students should learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre without feeling shame. After backlash on social media, Walters issued a statement on Friday denouncing the Tulsa Race Massacre and blaming the media for distorting his words.

“The media is twisting two separate answers. They misrepresented my statements about the Tulsa Race Massacre in an attempt to create a fake controversy. Let me be crystal clear that history should be accurately taught:  1. The Tulsa Race Massacre is a terrible mark on our history. The events on that day were racist, evil, and it is inexcusable. Individuals are responsible for their actions and should be held accountable.  2.  Kids should never be made to feel bad or told they are inferior based on the color of their skin,” Walters said.

Here is an audio recording and transcript of Walter’s conversation with an audience member.

Question from audience member: So the Tulsa Race Massacre was followed by 100 years of silence. The reason it was followed by 100 years of silence was the shame. It was a shameful event. When I learned about it — and not in public schools — I felt bad. I felt angry. I felt all these emotions. Two years ago, when I learned about the concentration camp that happened the day after, I was even more angry, I was even more ashamed that white Tulsans committed genocide against black Tulsans. What I don’t understand is how that does not fall under your definition of CRT.

Ryan Walters: Thank you for the question. Now, I want to be clear when we wrote — and we’ve got some of the legislators here — appreciate Representative (Sherrie) Conley that helped develop HB 1775, which is, in essence, the critical race theory bill, one of the things that we did, essentially at the beginning, as we wrote in the very beginning, all Oklahoma standards have to be taught. This is not an end-around to say, we’re not going to teach the Tulsa Race Massacre. That is absolutely, certainly not the intention, it was verbatim in the bill to say all of these standards have to be taught.

I believe our kids have to have all of our history. That’s the good, the bad and the ugly. Folks, I believe this is absolutely the greatest country in the history of the world. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. That doesn’t mean there weren’t mistakes. And that doesn’t mean that we didn’t live up to our principles. The only way our kids have the ability to learn from history and make this country continue to be the best country is to understand those times we fell short, a very clear, very direct understanding of those events.

I will always support that our kids should know that about the Tulsa Race Massacre. They absolutely should there are standards around it. I’m continuing to work to develop even more robust curriculum around these events, and I don’t want to hide any part of history. It all needs to be right there, very plain, very direct so that we can learn from it. So I think it’s very important.

Audience member: Follow up?

Ryan Walters: Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Audience member: How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of CRT?

Ryan Walters: Okay, thank you. I’m sorry, I didn’t address that part. I would never tell a kid that because of your race, because of your color of your skin, or your gender or anything like that, you are less of a person or in or are inherently racist. That doesn’t mean you don’t judge the actions of individuals. Oh, you can, absolutely, historically, you should. This was right. This was wrong. They did this for this reason. But to say it was inherent in that because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory, you’re saying that race defines a person. I reject that. So I would say you be judgmental of the issue, of the action, of the content of the character of the individual. Absolutely. But let’s not tie it to the skin color instead of the skin color determine it.

Audience member: How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of CRT? 

Ryan Walters: I answered it. That’s my answer. Again, I felt like…. (inaudible) 

Audience member: The Tulsa Race Massacre was a race massacre. How does it not fall under CRT?

Ryan Walters: I have answered your question. I appreciate you. Very respectfully, keep questions….

Audience member: What about race? How does that not fall (inaudible).

Walters then moved on to answering another audience member’s question.

The post Hear and read Ryan Walters’ full remarks about the Tulsa Race Massacre appeared first on The Frontier.

The Stay in School program provided tuition assistance of up to $6,500 for private school students whose families were financially affected by the pandemic.

An audit released Tuesday also confirmed flaws in how the state handled the Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet pandemic relief program. A joint investigation by The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch last year revealed how families spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bridge the Gap money on video game consoles, Christmas trees and grills.

Both programs were funded through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, a pot of flexible federal money intended to give governors the power to fund educational programs during the pandemic. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office was awarded $39 million through the federal program. 

Stitt’s spokeswoman, Kate Vesper, issued a statement after the audit was released, blaming the company ClassWallet, which ran the digital platform that dispensed Bridge the Gap funds.

“During the COVID pandemic, Governor Stitt had a duty to get federal relief funds to students and families in Oklahoma as quickly as possible and he responsibly accomplished just that,” Vesper said. “The state maintains its position that a negligent out-of-state vendor should be held accountable to recover the federal taxpayer dollars in question, and the auditor’s report further supports this is what ought to happen.”

But the state auditor placed blame for most of the question costs on the “State of Oklahoma’s failure to administer the program,” and not outside vendors.

Before he was elected State Superintendent last year, Ryan Walters oversaw the implementation of the pandemic programs funded with federal relief money while he was executive director of the pro-school reform nonprofit Every Kid Counts Oklahoma and after Stitt appointed him Secretary of Education in September 2020. State auditors were unable to find any contract authorizing Every Kid Counts Oklahoma to oversee the programs. 

E-mail records obtained by Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier show Walters issued a “blanket approval” for purchases of all vendor items available on the ClassWallet platform, after the company gave him a chance to restrict which items could be purchased.

Justin Holcomb, a spokesman for Walters, declined to answer The Frontier’s questions about how relief funds were managed and also blamed private contractors for the problems. 

Read more: Stitt gave families $8 Million for school supplies in the pandemic; They bought Christmas trees, gaming consoles and hundreds of TVs

State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd’s audit found $1.8 million in questioned costs for the Bridge the Gap Program and $6.5 million for the Stay in School program. The report found programs were overseen by individuals and private organizations who were unqualified, didn’t have contracts with the state authorizing them to perform the work and were granted access to confidential student records. 

The audit found that almost 20% of purchases through the Bridge the Gap program were spent on non-educational items, against grant guidelines. 

According to Byrd’s report, administrators of the Stay in School program were involved in a “deliberate operation to give selected private schools and individuals preferential treatment by allowing early access for application submission prior to the date this program was offered to the general public.”

Jennifer Carter, a prominent school choice advocate and president of Libertas Consulting LLC  was named as an administrator for the Stay in School program administrator without entering into a contract with the state, the audit found. 

Carter is a senior advisor for former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos’s education privatization organization Federation for Children, served as chief of staff and campaign manager for former State Superintendent Janet Barresi and has been involved in multiple school-choice efforts in Oklahoma. ClassWallet also listed Carter as a district administrator. 

With Carter’s direction, five, unnamed private schools were given preferential treatment for the Stay in School program, the audit found. 

Stay in School program administrators allowed the five schools to hold an open house to accept applications before the forms were made available to the general public.

Students from the preferred schools were awarded the maximum $6,500 per-student and received enrollment exceptions for children who had not previously attended, the audit found. 

After funds ran dry, 657 students of low-income families who qualified for the Stay in School program did not get the financial assistance.  More than $5.3 million went to families who said they did not have a pandemic-related financial hardship. The audit also found private schools received $1.8 million in excess of families’ tuition responsibilities. 

In a statement to The Frontier, Carter said the American Federation for Children did not bill the state for its work on the program.

“As the nation’s leading voice for education freedom, AFC was happy to offer advice to the state around the implementation of the Governor’s Stay in School Fund GEER program,” Carter said. “The Stay in School Fund, which was aimed at minimizing students’ education disruption during COVID, served almost 1900 kids with tuition assistance. We gladly provided this service at no expense to taxpayers.

In nearly 87% of cases reviewed by the audit, auditors were unable to confirm that the private schools were charging the state what parents would have been charged for tuition. An unnamed program administrator for the Stay in School program received some inquiries from private schools asking if they could bill for the program’s maximum per-student amount of $6,500, even if it was more than the tuition parents owed. 

“The State of Oklahoma dropped the ball on compliance and oversight,” Byrd said in a statement Tuesday accompanying the audit.

“This was a tangled web of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and non-government individuals representing special interest groups managing millions of tax dollars with no contracts and no written agreements,” Byrd said. “Sadly, millions of tax dollars were misspent because certain individuals who were put in charge of managing these programs seemingly ignored federal grant guidelines.”

The audit also found that Oklahoma neglected to monitor and file the proper federal compliance reports for the federal relief money. The state hired a consulting firm only after the federal government issued a warning in June 2021 about Oklahoma’s lack of monitoring and reporting. The state paid the consulting firm $325,000, but the contractor has not fulfilled its duties to monitor and report on the educational relief money, the audit found. 

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Tuesday described the state auditor’s report as “deeply troubling.” 

“A number of concerning items from the audit will require further investigation,” Drummond said. “I refuse to tolerate what amounts to a pervasive culture of waste, mismanagement and apparent fraud.”

The post Audit finds special interest groups gave Oklahoma private schools first-dibs on federal relief money while rejecting poor kids appeared first on The Frontier.

Walters’ path to confirmation in the state Senate was looking bleak with a number of Senators acknowledging to The Frontier it was unlikely he would get the 25 votes necessary to be confirmed. The state Senate is required to confirm the Governor’s appointments to his cabinet, and 25 votes are required in order to be confirmed. 

The state Senate has until the end of session to vote on appointments. 

Stitt’s decision to continue paying Walters an additional $40,000 a year as Secretary of Education drew criticism from both sides of the aisle as Walters makes just over $120,000 as state superintendent.

In a statement Tuesday, Stitt announced the appointment of Dr. Katherine Curry, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University in the College of Education and School of Educational Studies, to be his new Secretary of Education. There was no mention of Walters in his statement.

“Katherine brings a wealth of experience to oversee the many different areas of education across the state, including higher education and career tech. I look forward to her leadership and service as we work towards making Oklahoma a Top Ten state in education,” Stitt said in the statement.

Curry said she is “excited to partner with Governor Stitt” in making education in Oklahoma Top-10. 

The news that Walters had been replaced came while he was participating in a Statewide Virtual Charter School Board Meeting, where he is an ex-officio non-voting member. The board was discussing whether or not to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have offered online classes for K-12 students. It would have created the first taxpayer-supported religious charter school in the nation. The board voted down the proposal, but a Reuters story noted the church has a 30-day window to make changes to its application.

Walters, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said he was excited to add someone to “the team,” but did not say whether he resigned or was asked to step down. 

“We’re very excited to have her on the team,” he said. “The Governor and I are going to continue working to make us top 10 in every aspect of education.” 

Walters was named Secretary of Education in September 2020, more than two years before he was elected as state Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Prior to his political career, Walters taught in the McAlester Public School system where he was named Teacher of the Year in 2016. Walters resigned from teaching in 2019, and transitioned to nonprofit work, serving as Executive Director of Oklahoma Achieves, a nonprofit education organization created by the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce. 

He later moved to the nonprofit “Every Kid Counts Oklahoma,” where he served as executive director until stepping down earlier this year.
Walters’ school-choice views are unpopular with many educators, but the political newcomer was elected in a landslide in November, defeating educator Jena Nelson by more than 150,000 votes.

The post As hopes of confirmation wane, Governor replaces Ryan Walters as Secretary of Education appeared first on The Frontier.