Oklahoma has already started erasing Ryan Walters’ disastrous legacy

The Christian Nationalist superintendent’s resignation has sparked a statewide effort to undo his damage

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Ryan Walters may think he’s done screwing over the people of Oklahoma, at least through his government job, but the people of Oklahoma aren’t quite done with him.

Last week, Walters, the Christian Nationalist Superintendent of Public Instruction who has used his position to push religious indoctrination in schools, announced he was going to resign from his job to become CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a right-wing group that aims to destroy teachers’ unions. He soon submitted his formal resignation letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt and was gone by the end of September.

Since that glorious day last week, there have been three changes worth paying some attention to, because it appears that Oklahoma’s first order of business post-Walters is to undo as much of his damage as possible.

First, let’s talk about his replacement. Stitt appointed Lindel Fields to finish out Walters’ term. It’s an unusual selection in the sense that it’s not an overtly political appointment; he’s donated some money to Stitt and other Republicans in the past, sure, but he’s also given money to Democrats. He really wasn’t on anyone’s radar either. In fact, when The Oklahoman published an article about Walters’ possible successors on September 25, Fields didn’t even get a mention. Fields also has serious educational credentials:

Fields, 54, spent nearly 12 years as the superintendent of Tri County Technology Center in Bartlesville, after previously serving more than nine years as an assistant or deputy superintendent at the center. After retiring from CareerTech in 2021, Fields founded Your Culture Coach, a leadership consulting firm.

Nothing that raises red flags. Not only is Fields not interested in running for office next year, his mission appears to be righting the ship at the Education Department for the next person to hold his position, whoever that may be:

Fields said he isn’t interested in running in 2026 to keep the office for another four years. He said he is “laser-focused on what needs to be done at the state agency,” listing student reading proficiency, teacher recruitment and retention, and expanding students’ future career options as his priorities.

Stitt said that’s exactly the response he hoped for.

“That was a question I asked in the interview process because I wanted somebody not focused on the next election,” Stitt said. “Let’s focus on the kids.”

The implication there, of course, is that Ryan Walters was never interested in focusing on the kids.

Fields will be surrounded by new leadership at the Department of Education that includes other people with real credentials, too, all of which suggests Walters was an albatross around the necks of even elected Republicans.

All of that is just the first big change. The second one involves the website for the Education Department. If you saw it just two weeks ago—and we can—you would think it was Walters’ personal page.

The top of the page name-checked Walters and included a link to his bio, as if visitors to the state’s education website were mostly interested in him:

It included a link to the “Story of America,” which linked to Walters’ social studies standards, full of election misinformation and the Christian Nationalist version of American history. It has links to the right-wing group PragerU. Then there were the press releases that routinely promoted Walters’ right-wing culture war battles and attempts to punish teachers for not falling in line with his demands.

There was also a link to Walters’ “Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism,” where he insisted that the Ten Commandments could be posted in classrooms (not true) and falsely claimed that public schools had gone too far when defending church/state separation all because of “litigation-fearful board attorneys and outside anti-religion groups” (not true and a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Walters in which he tried to make that very argument).

That’s what the website looked like when Ryan Walters ran the department.

It’s not what the website looks like anymore.

The front page has no signs of Walters whatsoever—and nothing to promote Fields either. It’s just… professional. Hell, there’s a link near the top for educators who want to apply to become “Teacher of the Year.”

Not every vestige of Walters is gone—nor should it be for archival purposes—and everything he did can still be found if you know where to look for it, but the point is that the state government is now treating Walters as the sort of person even they want everyone to forget.

The third big development involves a thorough investigation into what Walters did during his 33-month stint in office, at the insistence of Attorney General Gentner Drummond:

Drummond requested the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office investigate the Education Department’s finances over the entirety of Walters’ tenure in charge, beginning Jan. 9, 2023, through Tuesday.

Drummond contended Walters had a “well-established history of mishandling tax dollars.”

That’s very true. As I’ve discussed before, Walters withheld $150 million for security enhancements that had already been allocated to public schools, hid information about how he spent taxpayer dollars for his office’s travel budget, failed to fulfill open records requests in a timely manner, and refused to spend money that he was legally obligated to spend on asthma inhalers for students.

Now that he can’t impede an investigation, maybe the people of Oklahoma can finally find out what the hell he was actually doing since it’s not like he spent much time helping kids.

There is a caveat, though: Stitt ordered a similar audit in 2021 for different reasons, but State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd has yet to complete it. Maybe in the case of Walters, though, there’s an added incentive to get that audit done quickly since showing you’re willing to investigate corruption even in your own party could help Gentner with his campaign for governor.

Even if the audit uncovers anything, it’s not clear what the consequences would be for anyone involved in the possible deception.

Beyond all that, people who worked closely with Walters have already been fired. The “Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame,” which featured portraits of educators and coaches and administrators who made huge contributions across the state, has been restored after Walters ordered it to be removed. And teachers are celebrating as if the Wicked Witch has been defeated:

“There’s been several parties and several celebrations that just spontaneously popped up out of nowhere,” [teacher] Jami Cole said. “Teachers are walking around with smiles on their faces and lots of high fives. There is no sadness. I hear from the teachers across Oklahoma who have reached out to me, it’s just nothing but pure joy and pure hope. So to me, that speaks volumes about where his politics were and what he was doing. It was not landing well with educators at all. We just want what’s best for kids.”

There’s literally a party on Sunday, outside the State Capitol, sponsored by the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, “to mark Walters’ resignation and to send him off the only way he deserves: with hugs, laughter, music, and a whole lot of farewell signs.” (Hundreds of people have already registered to attend.)

The state is still ranked near the bottom of the education rankings no matter which metric you want to use, so it’ll take some time to fully undo Walters’ disastrous legacy, but it’s apparent that everyone who’s not an enemy of public education or MAGA-adjacent is eager to move on now that the biggest obstacle to their success has finally walked away.

All of this is an indictment of what happens when ideology trumps education. Walters’ time in office turned classrooms into battlegrounds, hollowed out trust in public schools, and made a mockery of the idea that state leadership should serve children rather than fuel the culture wars. The clean-up effort now underway—with new leadership, a rewind of his agenda, and the possibility of long-overdue accountability—shows just how corrosive his reign really was.

If there’s any lesson to take from this, it’s that Oklahoma can’t afford to stumble backwards again. The state’s education system remains wounded and teachers are still fighting to be respected and properly supported. Walters may have been a symptom of a deeper sickness—the Secretary of Education is a MAGA cultist with a background in wrestling—but his fall can mark a turning point. The people of Oklahoma are ready to reclaim their schools from right-wing grifters and zealots. Even Republicans seem to understand that. With elections around the corner next year, it’s entirely possible that a Walters clone could win that position again. It’ll be up to other GOP candidates to condemn anyone like that, but there’s very little reason to think they’ll take the responsible path given their party’s extremist base in a deeply red state.

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