Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced he is resigning from his elected position as the state's top education official in a national television appearance.
The outgoing superintendent's tenure has been marked by political scandal and charged rhetoric, while Oklahoma's education system continued to lag behind the rest of the country.
Walters first announced his resignation late Wednesday night on FOX News. He said he'll be taking his fight against what he calls radical left teachers' unions to a national arena.
"I'll be stepping down as Oklahoma State Superintendent and taking on the role as the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance," he said. "We're going to destroy the teachers' unions."
Walters explained he'll do that by building "an army of teachers" who will help push his anti-union agenda. The Teacher Freedom Alliance is an offshoot of the conservative Freedom Foundation.
Gov. Kevin Stitt will appoint a replacement to finish out Walters' term, which ends in January 2027. A handful of candidates have declared their intent to run for the spot in 2026.
Walters was a presumed candidate for Oklahoma's governor in the 2026 cycle. However, preliminary polling shows Walters far behind opponents, with negative feelings outweighing positive ones even among Republican voters.
In what is expected to be his final meeting chairing Oklahoma's State Board of Education, Walters did not address his resignation in an opening statement. Instead, he turned it over to a representative from Turning Point USA to discuss the effort to establish a chapter in every Oklahoma high school.
He also left the meeting and did not answer questions from local reporters.
One of his final official acts was to present a proposed budget for K-12 education. The state board of education is mandated to do so before October of each year.
Walters' budget proposal serves as a wishlist, with a request of roughly $4 billion, a $100 million decrease from the previous year.
It holds state aid to public schools flat, while cutting public school activity funding and several other programs for schools. However, the board rejected Walters' budget proposal, saying they did not have enough information. The proposal's future is ultimately unclear and will likely be the responsibility of the next state superintendent.
Democrats – from state lawmakers to his former opponent for the state's highest education office – celebrated Walters' imminent departure.
Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt minced no words in a statement on Walters' departure.
"It's no surprise Ryan Walters has chosen his own personal ambitions over serving our students and teachers, like he always has," Kirt said. "Republicans failed to hold him accountable to do his job and they should be embarrassed he's left this office of his own accord."
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