In a stunning move, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced Wednesday he’s leaving his elected post Oct. 1 to become CEO of a group battling teachers unions.
Walters, a conservative who has bullishly promoted reintroducing the Christian faith to public school classrooms, told Fox 25 he is joining Teacher Freedom Alliance to continue efforts to dismantle the unions.
“We have seen the teachers’ unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools,” Walters said in an interview Wednesday. “We are one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the country. We will build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers’ unions once and for all. So, this fight is going national, and we will get our schools back on track.”
Walters and his senior advisor, Matt Langston, did not elaborate on why he is making the job change, except to affirm the desire to expand that work nationally.
“It’s going to be an incredibly powerful position for him to drive and take a fight directly to the teachers’ unions,” Langston told The Lion Thursday in an interview.
