X (formerly known as Twitter) users were cursed lately to see Ryan Walters, once again, floating across their timeline. In a recent video, Walters promulgated what is possibly the only decent idea he’s ever had: that parents should not have to pay for children’s school lunches on top of taxes which already ostensibly fund the schools themselves. However, across the state, schools have reported that they’ll be unable to cover the amount that Walters wants; Bixby Public Schools’ Superintendent wrote that the district would only be able to swallow about 30% of the necessary expenses.
In the Department of Education’s blog post about the issue, Title 70 O.S. § 3-104(A)(13) is cited as the law which allows Walters to do this. Section 13 gives the State Board of Education authority to require administrative workers in Oklahoma schools to submit “special reports” regarding their activities; the same section allows the BoE to withhold state funds until those reports are submitted and accepted. That could, potentially, be the legal basis for this mandate.
But it’s complicated. State Senator Mark Mann (D-Oklahoma City), who previously served on the Oklahoma City School Board, told News on 4 that Oklahoma school districts have a deadline of June 30 to finalize their budgets. One has to assume that Walters is aware of this. Why did he give his schools negative one week to make this massive budget shift happen?
Walters has a gorgeous track record for stuffing bullshit into the public school system that it can’t and shouldn’t handle. In May, he expressed disappointment that a publicly-funded Catholic school was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. He wanted public schools to collect citizenship data to quantify the cost of illegal immigration, something that was flatly illegal. He wanted $3 million from the state to purchase Bibles for every public school classroom, a use of taxpayer funds that was blocked by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He loves to pull this move: tell the schools they have to do something they cannot do, and lap up the media attention that results from it.
231,800 Oklahoma children face hunger, according to Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks and meal programs. That’s 1 in 4 children in Oklahoma. Obviously, there’s a problem here. But Ryan Walters’ attempt to solve it feels ham-handed—more jockeying for position than attempting to actually do something about the problem.
I’m not convinced in any way that Walters wants universal free lunch at public schools to happen. I am far more easily persuaded that he wants attention, and that he wants to further the goals of the people who have funded his lifestyle. More often than not, those goals are school privatization and the expansion of charter schools, according to The Frontier, who broke the story in 2022 that Walters, in addition to his Secretary of Education salary, was receiving a six-figure salary as the CEO of an educational nonprofit funded largely by the Walton Family Foundation, who donates to and pushes for causes aligned with said school privatization and charter school expansion.
None of this convinces me that Walters cares about public schools. Hopefully he'll move on soon to whatever position of power he’s grasping at with his grubby little hands, and leave public schools to people who actually give a shit about them. Maybe then we can hit 48th in education!
Tulsa News
- Tulsa plastic surgeon charged with Medicare/aid Fraud and Conspiracy to Distribute Adderall
- An effort to expand a scholarship for Tulsa Race Massacre descendants has stalled
- Philbrook wants you to design their new brand
- Tulsa is reevaluating where the Cry Baby Cry statue will go; development is stalled
- RiverParks adds 90 acres to Turkey Mountain. More room for activities!
State & Regional News
- Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. responded to Ann Coulter tweeting “We didn’t kill enough Indians,” calling it “dangerous hate speech… The country frequently seems on the verge of political violence. Coulter’s post implicitly encourages it.”
- Homeland closes four rural grocery stores across the state
- An antigovernment militia group appears to have claimed responsibility for an attack on a News 9 weather radar
- Muscogee Nation sues City of Henryetta citing McGirt
- Joe Exotic loses federal appeal seeking new trial in murder-for-hire case
- The Heartland Flyer received $3.5 million in funding to keep running for another year
Jobs & Opportunities
- Nondoc seeks an Edmond reporter | Full-time | Salary not listed
