“…the Stitt-Walters era has been an embarrassment to our state…even worse, test scores and reading proficiency are at historic lows…focus on quality instruction in our public schools.”

This was the statement from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond commenting on the resignation announcement of Ryan Walters. Drummond, who is also a Republican, appears to be joined by many in Oklahoma who have had enough of Ryan Walters and his attempts to turn the public school system into a theocracy. For several years, Walters has attempted to use his position as the state’s education leader to push white Christian Nationalist principles onto public schools throughout the state.

Walters was the Oklahoma head of the Department of Education. He just announced this past week that he was leaving his post to become the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance. The new nonprofit is “dedicated to empowering educators who are committed to developing the next generation of free, moral, and upright American citizens.” It is a perfect fit for someone who believes that public school teachers are evil and do not help students develop a sense of moral right and wrong.

Additionally, the Teacher Freedom Alliance has this vision: “We support the right of every educator in America to pursue excellence in the classroom free of ideological interference.” I wonder if that includes freedom from the indoctrination of ideological organizations such as PragerU and other right-wing think tanks? With Walters at the helm, there will undoubtedly be an attempt to get teachers to use their position as state employees to push and teach Christian faith in public school classrooms in clear violation of the US Constitution.

The true mission of the Teacher Freedom Alliance is to attack and dismantle the national teachers’ union. They see themselves as the “viable alternative to teacher unions.” Walters stated in an interview on Fox News when he announced his resignation, that, “We’re gonna destroy the teachers’ unions.” What this organization is really up to is providing a Christian Nationalist teachers a union of their own.

Ryan Walters, as the head of the Oklahoma Department of Education, never prioritized improving education for students. If you aren’t familiar with his record, here is a review of what he did to harm education and students in his state:

• He attempted to use public funds to purchase Trump Bibles for public schools, ultimately settling for sending a few hundred to AP Government teachers who did not need them.
• He rewrote the social studies standards to indoctrinate children with pro-Christian mythology, got the state’s Board of Education to approve those standards without telling them he made additional changes, got sued over it, and got blocked from implementing those standards by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
• He used public money to fund a religious charter school, a decision the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court later voted not to overturn that decision.
• Implementing a new “America First” test written by PragerU, he required new teachers coming from blue states, such as California and New York, to submit to the assessment. He said it was to gauge their level of patriotism.
• Walters tried forcing teachers to make the Bible part of their curriculum, to put Christian chaplains in public schools, mandate displays of the Ten Commandments in schools, claimed the Tulsa Race Massacre had nothing to do with race, and falsely insisted that President Joe Biden wanted “to destroy our Christian faith.”

While Walters was busy trying to Christianize the public schools, Oklahoma’s test scores dropped to 48th in the nation, barely ahead of Alabama and Arizona. The damage Walters caused to students and schools will take a considerable amount of time to repair. Perhaps the next education leader appointed by Governor Stitt will truly prioritize quality instruction and students.

A friend of mine, who now lives here in Iowa, grew up in Oklahoma. JJ Johnson of Richmond, Iowa, has been a strong critic of Walters as the education leader of his home state. Recently, Johnson sent Walters a letter to cut through the deception that Walters continually preached. It is a great letter, and I asked JJ for permission to reprint it here. It is a valuable perspective from someone who was a resident of the state of Oklahoma and, at the time, an evangelical Christian. Johnson has since changed his views about religion.

What Johnson shows us is that the fear-mongering of white Christian nationalists is groundless. Walters continually touts his efforts to “bring God back to education.” The truth is, students’ First Amendment rights to pray, hold Bible studies, and discuss their faith have not been restricted.

Here is JJ’s letter to Ryan Walters:

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is resigning. In memory of his crusade against religious liberty in my home state, here’s an open letter I wrote him last fall (2024):

For four years in the 2000s, I co-led a Christian club at my Tulsa high school.

Wander down the back hall of my school on a Friday morning back then, you’d hear the off-key sound of a dozen students singing worship songs. If you stuck around, you’d hear a kid preach – maybe a reflection on Scripture, maybe a word of encouragement during finals, maybe a call to carry out the Great Commission. Many times, that kid would be me.

Some students liked the group so much that they attended regularly. Others stopped in only once. Most of the kids at our school had no clue we existed and never formed an opinion of us at all.

And there were a few who were bothered by what we did. They would say we were “too exclusive” (we were). They would say we held “bigoted” views (we did).

Yet, not once in those four years did anyone challenge our right to gather. No student, no matter their distaste for what we believed, tried to stop us. So long as we followed school policy, the school let us use a room and then left us alone.

Evangelical culture at large had prepared us for a very different outcome. As Christians, we were taught to expect persecution – from classmates, from our school, from our government. From “martyrdoms” at Columbine to Bill O’Reilly’s “War on Christmas”, our culture was [to be one] one of increasing antagonism, if not outright violence, to the faithful.

The Christian singer, Carman (whose recording studio sat not far from my school), summed up this mythos back in 1993. In the music video for “Our Turn Now”, Carman sang from the bustling halls of a large public high school:

“The ball got dropped in ‘62

They wouldn’t let children pray in school

Violent crime began to rise

The grades went down and the kids got high

Free love, gay rights

No absolutes, abortion on demand

Brought VD, AIDS, and no morality

Today no one knows right from wrong

There’s blood on people’s hands.”

Carman is referencing the 1962 Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale. The decision, according to Carmen, “wouldn’t let children pray in school” and declared “no God at all!”, leaving society vulnerable to all kinds of ills.

Carman was either ignorant of the law or simply lying. Engel v. Vitale outlawed state-sponsored prayer. A student’s right to pray in school was untouched. If anything, Engel v. Vitale further protected that right. No longer could a student be subjected to a state-sponsored prayer to God as a condition of attending school.

This reality was of no concern for many of the most visible and powerful in Evangelical culture. They told a different story: Christians were under attack. Students were on the front lines. In the music video for “Our Turn Now”, Carman, surrounded by a group of singing high schoolers, issued the call: “World, you had your turn at bat. Now stand back and see. That it’s our turn now.”

Yet, after hundreds of meetings over four years, the persecution never came. Quite the opposite, in fact. I enjoyed a place of relative power and influence throughout high school.

I was often blind to the experience of those who believed differently than me and the challenges they faced exercising their Constitutionally protected rights. My blind spots were as big as my ego, and I didn’t see the role I played in pushing them to the margins.

High school was a long time ago, but the myth I was taught back then hasn’t gone away.

In fact, it is now policy in the Oklahoma Department of Education. Ryan Walters is waging a holy war. As his now-famous coffee mug states, “Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum” – “if you want peace, be prepared for war.”

Walters preaches that America took God out of schools and it’s up to him and his ilk to bring God back through Bibles in every classroom, mandated viewing of state-sponsored prayer, and the very normal, not-at-all fascistic creation of the “Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism.”

There’s just one problem – God never left. Students (Christians especially) enjoy more religious liberty today than ever. American schools have simply made room for kids who don’t believe like Ryan Walters and in the process, further protected the rights of every student.

This is something Christians ought to be thankful for. As the author of the Engel v. Vitale decision reminds us, it was Christians, after all, from whom the Pilgrims fled in their search for religious liberty. Christians have consistently used State power to deny the religious freedom of other Christians in this country, not to mention those of other faiths. Americans have just as consistently fought back. It’s common sense that everyone benefits when the State’s power to enforce religious conformity is restricted.

Ryan Walters knows this, but he just doesn’t care. He isn’t stupid. He’s malicious. His is a charlatan’s religion and a despot’s liberty.

Let the kids pray. Let the kids not pray.

And Mr. Walters –please, for the sake of the children you pretend to defend, exercise your Constitutional right to shut up.

Walters did even better than just “shutting up.” He resigned. However, something tells me he is not finished making Christian Nationalist mischief and trying to inflict it upon our public school system. Now, he has a platform that gives him access to teachers in all 50 states.