Ryan Walters

Early life and career

Ryan Walters was born on May 23, 1985, in McAlester, Oklahoma. His father was a bank executive while his mother worked at Eastern Oklahoma State College. They both attended Harding University and are members of the North Town Church of Christ, where his father serves as a minister and his mother serves as the elementary education director.

Walters grew up in McAlester and graduated from Harding University in 2010 before returning to teach at McAlester High School in 2012. In 2016, he was a McAlester Teacher of the Year and a finalist for State Teacher of the Year. In 2018, Walters met future governor Kevin Stitt at a tennis tournament and the two became friends. Later that year, he published three articles in the conservative magazine The Federalist. He was also appointed to the Oklahoma Community Service Commission in 2018 by Governor Mary Fallin and Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability in 2019 by Governor Stitt. He resigned from McAlester Public Schools in 2019.

On May 29, 2019, Walters was appointed as the executive director of Oklahoma Achieves, a nonprofit education organization created by the State Chamber of Oklahoma. By March 2020, Oklahoma Achieves transitioned into an independent nonprofit, Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, with Walters as its executive director. Walters resigned from his position at Every Kid Counts Oklahoma the week before his inauguration as Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Oklahoma Secretary of Education

On September 10, 2020, Governor Kevin Stitt nominated Walters to be Oklahoma Secretary of Education. He is the youngest education secretary in state history.

On May 2, 2022, The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch reported on a United States Department of Education investigation that found the Bridge the Gap program Walters oversaw was implemented with few safeguards to prevent fraud or abuse and that federal auditors were investigating the distribution of COVID-19 relief money through the program.

On May 11, Oklahoma House of Representatives Democrats called on Governor Stitt to call for Walters' resignation. The governor's office responded, "Secretary Walters is doing a great job fighting for parents' right to be in charge of their child's education and advocating for funding students, not government-controlled systems."

Later in May, Oklahoma newspapers reported that while working as Secretary of Education, Walters remained the executive director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, an Oklahoma education-related nonprofit organization. Walters was paid approximately $120,000 a year by Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, compared to his state salary of $40,000. The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch reported that Every Kid Counts Oklahoma was funded by national school privatization advocates and charter school expansion advocates, such as the Walton Family Foundation and another group founded by Charles Koch.

In August 2023, The Oklahoman reported that the state auditor, Cindy Byrd, found, through a state audit that included the Bridge the Gap program, that $1.7 million was spent on various non-educational items, such as kitchen appliances, power tools, furniture, and entertainment. Walters oversaw the Bridge the Gap program at the time of the misappropriation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the misspending of federal funds meant to help Oklahoma children learn at home during the pandemic as part of the $39.9 million Governor's Emergency Education Relief grant.

Walters was reappointed by Governor Stitt as Oklahoma Secretary of Education in 2023. On April 11, 2023, Stitt appointed Katherine Curry to replace Walters, whose reappointment stalled in the Oklahoma Senate after Attorney General Gentner Drummond stated it was illegal for him to hold both the Secretary of Education and State Superintendent positions. Curry resigned after only three months citing the "political environment."

State Superintendent

2022 campaign

Walters ran for Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction in a June 2022 primary as one of four Republican candidates alongside John Cox, William Crozier, and April Grace. He was endorsed in the primary by Governor Kevin Stitt and Texas senator Ted Cruz. He advanced to an August run-off alongside April Grace, which he won with 53% of the vote. While campaigning, Walters promulgated the litter boxes in schools hoax. He defeated the Democratic Party's nominee, Jena Nelson, in the general election. After the campaign, Walters was fined for 14 violations of state campaign finance ethics rules. He contested 13 of the violations.

Tenure

One of Walters's first acts in office was to instruct the Oklahoma Department of Education to revoke the teaching licenses of two Oklahoma teachers who had been critical of HB 1775, a law that limits teaching concepts around race and gender.

In April 2023, the Oklahoma Attorney General's office under Gentner Drummond issued an opinion stating that HB 1775 does not grant authority to the State Board of Education "to make administrative rules without proper direction from the state Legislature"; as a result, Walters's "rules regarding pornography in library books, sex education, parents' rights and inappropriate materials" were unenforceable. Drummond said that he was not "taking a stance" on Walters's rules. Ryan Kiesel said after asking Walters to show them the pornographic material Walters claims schools have, Walters emailed and had staff members hand-deliver copies of explicit materials to lawmakers' offices, though he never said from what schools the materials originated.

In September 2023, Walters announced that the state would cooperate with conservative media group PragerU to provide curriculum to Oklahoma schools, a policy similar to one recently adopted in Florida. Oklahoma Democrats criticized the curriculum as "whitewashing history". Walters was featured in a PragerU video on their website acknowledging the partnership. After the announcement, The Black Wall Street Times, a Tulsa-based African American newspaper, requested an interview with Walters, but was told by an Oklahoma Department of Education spokesperson that they were barred from interviews due to tweets by the paper's editor-in-chief. He also launched an investigation into Western Heights Public Schools for hiring a principal who is a drag performer in their free time.

In 2024, Walters attempted to reject the American Library Association's standards for information literacy. Walters had called the current standards "woke". The ALA, which works with the Oklahoma Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians, said it "remains focused on ensuring that our current information literacy standards meet academic rigor and that we continue to strive to make Oklahoma a top 10 state in literacy". He has also accused librarians of promoting pornography, but has not cited any instances of them having done so.

In January 2024, Walters appointed far-right Libs of TikTok account owner Chaya Raichik to a statewide library advisory board, prompting bipartisan criticism. Walters's decision also resulted in protests from a number of parents, educators, and lawmakers who believed Raichik endangered students and teachers.

Teacher Freedom Alliance

On October 1, 2025, Walters started his tenure as the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance.

Political positions

Critical race theory

During a July 2023 town hall, Walters was asked, "How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of (critical race theory)" and responded, "Let's not tie it to the skin color and say that the skin color determined that." The comments sparked social media backlash and were satirized by The Onion. Earlier in the event, Walters had said, "Our kids should know ... about the Tulsa Race Massacre. They absolutely should. There are (state academic) standards around that. I'll continually work for a more robust curriculum around these events."

Culture war

As superintendent of education, Walters has pursued culture war causes. In selfie video-recordings and in other public statements, Walters has condemned what he calls "woke ideology"; accused teachers of attempting to indoctrinate Oklahoma schoolchildren; referred to the Oklahoma teachers' union as a "terrorist organization"; and claimed that the separation of church and state was a liberal "myth."

In September 2023, he spoke to the U.S. House Education Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education in favor of banning the Confucius Institute because it was funded by the Chinese government. During the hearing representative Raul Grijalva asked Walters about allowing the oil and gas industry to influence climate change curriculum through PragerU, to which he responded "these are American companies that are a benefit to the American economy, so I don't see any issue with them having influence on our education system."

U.S. Department of Education

In June 2023, Walters spoke at the Moms for Liberty national summit in Philadelphia, during which he advocated eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and criticized teachers' unions.

Electoral history