Oklahoma’s Ryan Walters Resigns as Schools Chief to Launch Conservative Teacher Movement

Oklahoma’s controversial superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, is stepping down from his state role to take his fight national. Walters, who’s spent the last two years making headlines by pushing religion and right-wing ideology into Oklahoma classrooms, announced he is resigning to run a new conservative education group.

Walters will now lead the Teacher Freedom Alliance (TFA), a nonprofit he says will be dedicated to freeing teachers from “union control” and building what he calls “an army of teachers to defeat the teachers unions once and for all.”

The group’s website hails Walters as someone who “fearlessly fights the woke liberal union mob” and promises to create “a national movement centered on freedom and common sense.”

Appearing on Fox News Wednesday night, Walters declared his mission clear: “destroy the teachers unions” and expand the Christian nationalist agenda he’s championed in Oklahoma to schools across the country.

During his tenure, Walters inserted Trump-endorsed Bibles into classrooms, required teaching 2020 election conspiracies, and pushed for a Catholic charter school in violation of church-state separation principles. He once even tried to mandate schools play a video of him praying. Just this week, he called for Turning Point USA chapters in every Oklahoma school.

With more than 400 national media appearances under his belt, Walters has long been seen as someone with ambitions beyond Oklahoma. Conservative influencers, including Libs of TikTok and leaders at the Heritage Foundation, have floated him as a future U.S. education secretary in a Trump administration.

Now, by resigning and moving to TFA, Walters seems to be making his big national play.