Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced this week that he is resigning to lead a conservative education nonprofit and help expand Turning Point USA chapters across the state’s high schools.
Walters, who has overseen Oklahoma public schools since 2022, said he will step down to head the Teacher Freedom Alliance. The group’s website describes Walters as “one of America’s boldest conservative reformers, leading the charge to restore freedom, break union control, and return power to parents.”
The site adds: “Elected in 2022 as Oklahoma’s State Superintendent, Walters wasted no time dismantling the failed status quo. He created Oklahoma’s first Office of School Choice, banned predators from classrooms, brought the Bible back into schools, stripped accreditation from lawless DEI-pushing districts, and forced failing schools to improve. His reforms are proof that conservative leadership can deliver real victories for teachers and families.”
Walters confirmed his move Wednesday night on Fox News. He told viewers he planned to “destroy the teachers unions” and “build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers unions once and for all.” Earlier on X, he teased the announcement by writing, “Liberal’s worst nightmare is about to become true.”
The superintendent has drawn national attention with several controversial measures. He placed Donald Trump-endorsed Bibles in classrooms, backed the nation’s first Catholic public charter school, and attempted to require schools to play a video of him praying.
This week, Walters pledged to establish a Turning Point USA chapter in every Oklahoma high school following the assassination of group co-founder Charlie Kirk.
“This is a battle for the future of the country,” Walters said in a Zoom interview reported by KOSU. “We’ve never seen anything like the engagement here in Oklahoma. I think it will be very, very quickly that we’ll be able to hit that goal of getting a Turning Point in every high school in the state.”
I am very excited to announce a partnership with @TPUSA to establish chapters in ALL Oklahoma high schools. Radical leftist teachers’ unions have dominated classrooms for far too long, and we are taking them back. pic.twitter.com/3sihJX3sUv
— Ryan Walters (@RyanWalters_) September 23, 2025
John Croisant, Tulsa Public Schools’ 5th District board member and a Democratic congressional candidate, rejected Walters’ declaration. “Tulsa Public Schools will not be participating. And he can’t make us. Because that’s not a part of accreditation,” Croisant told KOSU in a phone interview.
“We have Fellowship of Christian Athletes, we have [See You At the Pole], we’ve got all sorts of clubs at schools that students can create on their own, but we’re not going to actively be pushing political organizations within our schools.”
Former DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa also criticized Walters’ move. “I do not think that we should be forcing ideology on our children, especially in public schools,” she told Fox News.