The number of House Republicans asking for an investigation into state Superintendent Ryan Walters is climbing, but the lawmaker leading the effort expressed uncertainty that he could meet the 51 signatures necessary for the chamber’s leader to consider the inquiry.
Although the probe appears unlikely, voices opposing Walters’ leadership crescendoed this week from within his own Republican Party, with more GOP lawmakers making public statements of frustration.
As of Wednesday, 26 Republican representatives had signed a letter from Rep. Mark McBride asking the House speaker to convene an investigative committee to look into legal and financial concerns over Walters and the Oklahoma State Board of Education, including their treatment of lawmakers.
Part of that committee’s duties would be to investigate whether Walters committed impeachable offenses, according to the letter.
McBride, R-Moore, said he believes his letter could get 40 signatures, nearly half of the House GOP caucus, but even that would fall short of prompting any action.
House Speaker Charles McCall said on Tuesday that 51 of the 81 Republicans in his chamber must sign the letter before he would consider forming a committee to investigate Walters.
“I think that’s a rule he uses only when it’s convenient for him and he doesn’t want to deal with something,” McBride said of the speaker’s signature threshold.
McCall said investigations of criminal offenses should be conducted by the Attorney General’s Office, not the Legislature, and financial oversight of Walters’ administration could be handled in typical House budget hearings.
Someone elected to public office should not be removed unless “absolutely required by the Constitution,” McCall said.
Walters dismissed the demands for an investigation as “baseless and without merit.” He called the lawmakers who signed the letter “liberal Republicans.”
“The left and union lackeys call for an investigation and impeachment,” he posted on social media. “I will never stop standing for parents!”
One of Walters’ most outspoken critics over the past two legislative sessions has been McBride, who leads a House committee on education funding.
But now, other Republicans — including lawmakers who signed McBride’s letter and some who did not — have started airing their scrutiny of Walters in public.
“The implication that the Oklahoma Legislature — widely considered one of the most conservative in the country — endorses a liberal agenda is frankly laughable,” said Elk City Republican Rep. Nick Archer, who signed the letter. “Let me be clear: neither porn nor Ryan Walters belong in Oklahoma schools.”
House Speaker-elect Kyle Hilbert, who will succeed McCall next session, did not sign the letter but called for a change in rhetoric toward educators.
“School districts across the state are back to school but instead of talking about the excitement of a new year, we are discussing these issues due to the statements being put out by (the state Department of Education),” said Hilbert, R-Bristow.
Some GOP lawmakers say complaints from constituents, including conservative Oklahomans, also have become louder as the controversies surrounding Walters grow in number.
McBride said he’s heard frustrations from within his district in Moore and in rural Oklahoma.
While eating in a restaurant in Seiling, a town in northwest Oklahoma that Walters won with more than 70% of the general election vote in 2022, McBride was approached by local residents who wanted to make their objections to the state superintendent known, he said.
“They would be ones that I would think would be pro-Walters, and they dislike the man,” McBride said. “I mean, they just had nothing good to say about him or what he’s doing.”
Walters said he is confident in his work at the Oklahoma State Department of Education to “undo years of political activism and indoctrination in our public schools.” Of course, those who were happy with the old status quo are upset with the changes, he said.
“They reek of political desperation from those who are failing in their misguided attempts to stop the positive education reforms that parents and voters have demanded from their elected leaders,” Walters said.
McBride’s letter lists six concerns that emerged since the Legislature’s 2024 session ended on May 30. The list cites the Walters administration’s poor responsiveness to lawmakers asking for information and to open records requests from the public.
It also outlines lawmakers’ objections to the State Department of Education reportedly withholding funds for school security and asthma inhalers.
Legislators also complained the agency blocked them from attending private meetings of the state Board of Education, despite state law permitting them entry.
Rep. Preston Stinson, R-Edmond, said this was the final straw that prompted him to sign McBride’s letter, along with growing frustrations from residents of his House district.
Stinson said he’s received daily emails complaining about Walters for a long time, but now even conservative voters have started to voice “dissatisfaction with the constant air of chaos.”
Refusing to allow lawmakers to attend executive sessions isn’t a policy disagreement, Stinson said, but a matter of respecting the rule of law. He said he didn’t sign the letter hoping to remove Walters from office, but rather to signal support for an investigation into the Legislature’s concerns and to reflect his constituents’ desire for action.
“Hopefully this maybe is a bit of a message to (Superintendent) Walters that it’s not just Mark McBride. It’s not just liberals, and it’s not just (Republicans in name only),” Stinson said. “It’s a broader-based group of people that have concerns. And so, hopefully he sees that and takes it seriously.”
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence.
