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How Ryan Walters' rhetoric, politics impact Oklahomans

Last fall, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced his plans to spend $3 million from the department of education's budget to purchase 55,000 Bibles to place in classrooms.
Lionel Ramos
/
KOSU
Last fall, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced his plans to spend $3 million from the department of education's budget to purchase 55,000 Bibles to place in classrooms.

Ryan Walters often uses language that stokes fear and division among his constituents. School communities say they're fed up; Experts say it's dangerous.

In his own words, Ryan Walters is the leader of a system that’s verging on operating “terrorist training camps.”

That comes from a Jan. 2 car video Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction posted on the social media platform X. In it, Walters says teachers across the state are instructing public school children to hate America.

“We have schools that are teaching kids to hate their country, that this country is evil. You have teachers unions pushing this on our kids… look, this is a very uncomfortable truth, but we cannot allow our schools to become terrorist training camps,” he said.

Walters posted the video following a New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, which resulted in 14 fatalities and injured at least 57 people.

Tulsa Public School's District 5 Board Member, John Croisant said Oklahoma educators are fed up with how Walters talks about the schools and teachers he’s meant to support.

"It’s a false narrative," Croisant said. “It is 100% political. It is 100% false.”

He said he thinks the move was designed to capitalize on media traction about the New Orleans attack and snag headlines for attention.

It’s something Walters has done before, like when he doubled down on school bathroom restrictions for trans and non-binary students after news of Owasso High School sophomore Nex Benedict’s death. More recently, he proposed collecting the immigration statuses of students and their parents to determine the “burden of illegal immigration" on Oklahoma schools after a series of news pegs about President Trump’s promise of mass deportations.

But as the headlines and social media clicks pour in, they’re hurting Oklahoma schools, students and immigrant communities, Croisant said.

The news Walters follows and the ideas he pushes through his car videos and media platforms, show he's not thinking about students in Oklahoma, he said, but of lofty political aspirations.

"Instead of looking out for student outcomes and improving a state that's ranked right now 49th in education, Ryan is continually trying to stoke these political things to either get appointed to an office or run for another office, but none of it is actually helping to improve education in Oklahoma,” Croisant said.

Walters’ choice to espouse Trumpism doesn’t make him unique. Like other Republican statewide elected officials and members of the state legislature, the state superintendent is one of many Oklahoma politicians promising to help fulfill Trump’s policy agenda – either to keep or gain votes here at home, or to be noticed by an incoming president looking to fill his cabinet.

Walters has hinted about his gubernatorial run for some time, most evidently when he accused the former Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall of wanting to impeach him to knock him out of the competition. State Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who has praised many Trump initiatives, has already entered the race.

A political strategy at play

For his part, Walters denies that he’s trying to stir up divisiveness.

At a rally earlier this month opposing green energy projects around the state, Walters said any attempts to frame his words as harmful are “absurd, radical, leftist gaslighting.”

He maintained teachers are indoctrinating students to hate America by recognizing diversity and including others, as well as supporting the failed assassination attempts against Donald Trump, and the successful one against United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson.

“We have the left out there lionizing a guy that assassinated a CEO saying he's justified because he’s a capitalist,” Walters said. “I had to pull the certificate of a teacher who said next time the assassins shouldn't miss President Trump. Critical Race Theory has been one of the most prominent things that was pushed in education for the last 7 to 8 years or so.”

He said Oklahoma is ahead of the national curve in public school reform. The focus has been developing a “pro-America” curriculum, teaching the basics, removing teachers' unions from schools and putting parents back in charge.

And part of that, Walters said, means backing Trump’s plan to deport people without legal immigration status, be they public school students or not.

”The mandate is clear,” Walters said. “We cannot allow our schools to not give us information on illegal immigrants. We will work with the Trump administration…and continue to do that unapologetically.”

Political scientists and researchers contend Walters’ use of charged rhetoric and divisive policymaking is a tried-and-true strategy among elected officials trying to rally their base around hyper-partisan and false information.

Studies show it’s also a strategy known to stoke the kind of ‘terrorism’ Walters claims he’s eradicating from Oklahoma schools every day.

Using ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ in the public discourse

Mark Pitcavage is the senior research fellow at the American Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. He’s testified before Congress on matters of white supremacy, written dozens of articles on political extremism and otherwise researched the topic for decades. He said the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ are often charged with contempt and overused by the general public — including politicians.

Mark
Mark Pitcavage
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X
Mark Pitcavage

Pitcavage said he and other researchers tend to use the words sparingly.

”Terrorism is a very loaded term,” Pitcavage said. “When I refer to terrorism, I use a very narrow definition.”

He said that definitions depend on the context of the research. Various terms used to describe what researchers find often overlap, like ‘political violence’ and ‘hate crimes,’ which may include acts of terror but can add context.

The Associated Press Stylebook, which has guided news writing conventions for nearly 100 years, uses a broad definition of terrorism when compared to what an academic might use in a research paper: 'The calculated use of violence, especially, against civilians, to create terror to disrupt and demoralize societies for political ends.'

In acknowledgment of the complexities Pitcavage points to, however, journalists are also advised to use the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ without attribution sparingly and to instead describe specific events, like massacres, bombings and assassinations.

How calling teachers terrorists hurts Oklahoma’s schools and students

When it comes to Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ use of the terms in reference to teachers and their spreading of vague ‘woke’ and ‘anti-American’ ideals, Pitcavage said he’s seen the behavior before, in the politicians of today and throughout history.

“Essentially what he's using is a rhetorical strategy,” Pitcavage said. “He has a particular agenda he wants to implement in Oklahoma Schools based on his ideological, political and religious views that he’s made very clear.”

If Walters can convince enough people that Oklahoma’s education outcomes are among the worst in the nation because of a radical leftist agenda and not his and others' ineffective policy-making, Pitcavage said, then he creates the need for a scapegoat — a real, tangible representation of that agenda.

”Then, he could present his own views, not as something radical, but as a course correction, somehow back to the center or the way it was,” Pitcavage said.

That’s where targeted groups — like teachers and immigrants — come in.

”Because of his position…people may be swayed by his rhetoric and could themselves use the language or take action that could really harm people,” Pitcavage said. “It could create a hostile environment for some students, or result in exclusionary policies, informal or formal.”

Earlier this month, the superintendent proposed an administrative rule change requiring Oklahoma school districts to collect the immigration status information of students and their parents to determine the cost burden of illegal immigration on the state’s Education system.

Last week, he sued the federal government for $474 million in reparations associated with educating children without legal immigration status. How Walters calculated that number remains unclear.

Croisant, the Tulsa Public Schools board member, worries about the harmful effects of Walters’ words and actions.

John Croisant
Tulsa Public Schools
John Croisant

”We have a shortage of teachers,” he said, “And they have to work very hard in Oklahoma because we have a lack of resources for them and a lack of respect.”

When the state superintendent calls teachers terrorists, Croisant said, it chills them from wanting to stay in their line of work in Oklahoma, especially when they know they could make more money elsewhere.

“This rhetoric is only attacking and keeping us from hiring more teachers, because right now, they can make more money in Dallas or in Fort Worth by about $10,000 or $20,000 starting pay,” he said.

Croisant also pointed to his fear of increased violence against schools spurred by what Walters is saying about them.

”I'm afraid that these types of accusations are going to create attacks by people — hoaxes or not — to try to get more publicity or actual hate, actual violence against our teachers or our students or staff."

Last August, just as classes were starting, Tulsa-area Union Public Schools received a series of bomb threats following an elementary librarian’s back-to-school TikTok video. Far-right TikTok account, Libs of TikTok had posted an altered version of the librarian’s initial video, painting them as a ‘woke’ radical.

Walters reposted the altered video the morning of the bomb threats reaffirming the existence of a ‘woke ideology’ with it as proof. It’s unclear if Walters knew about the threats before he posted.

Steven Nemeth, an associate political science professor at Oklahoma State University, said Croisant’s fear isn’t misplaced.

One 2020 study Nemeth contributed to titled “Ethnic political exclusion and terrorism: Analyzing the local conditions for violence” contends states with high poverty levels, low educational outcomes and politically excluded ethnic groups are significantly more prone to acts of political violence compared to those with more socioeconomic mobility, demographic diversity and equitable representation in politics.

It also points to past research establishing that terrorism, specifically as it pertains to non-state actors, is more common among minority groups who represent a larger proportion of a state’s total population.

“I think the political science perspective is that, throughout history, you see the use of this extreme rhetoric to create this us versus them dynamic,” Nemeth said. “And it’s much easier to go after the ‘other’ when you no longer think they are like you.”

While data on how terrorism develops at the local level is limited, the article concludes, the work done by Nemeth and others using what research is available shows that for large democratic countries with high ethnic diversity, matters of ethnic inclusion and representation are “more than an abstract democratic value, but a matter of national security.”

Still, it appears division-sowing rhetoric is here to stay, as Trump moves into the Whitehouse and local politicians in Oklahoma and beyond look to cater to his policy vision to help ensure political success at home. All 77 Oklahoma counties voted for Trump three times in a row.

While Trump never nominated Walters for a position in his administration, a run for Oklahoma governor is still on the table. And speculation Walters will announce his run soon is high, considering the superintendent has all but committed to joining the race.

Walters already challenged a possible opponent last fall when he asked House Speaker McCall to impeach him.

“Charles McCall is more concerned about running for governor in 2026 than taking care of Oklahomans,” Walters said. “This is a clear attack on who he views as his biggest political opponent in that governor's race in 2026.”

Drummond is the highest profile person running for the office at this time and he hasn’t exactly agreed with Walters on everything, particularly around injecting religion in schools.

Like Walters, though, the state attorney general has pandered to President Trump. And so has McCall. And most of the Republican leadership in the legislature.

Nemeth said it remains unclear to him whether Walters – and others who use similar rhetoric — always believe what they say on their platforms.

Ultimately, he said, it doesn’t matter.

"If he wants attention, he’s getting it,” Nemeth said. “And if he wants a certain policy prescription, he’s getting that too.”

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Lionel Ramos covers state government at KOSU. He joined the station in January 2024.
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