Oklahoma school boss slams GOP lawmakers for trying to silence outreach on LGBTQ education agenda

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is slamming some Republicans for pushing a legislative measure that would restrain him from speaking out against LGBTQ agendas in schools. 

"It's incredible to see this," Walters said. "We've seen this at the federal level. You have Republican reformers who are real conservatives. They started moving the ball and sometimes people in their own party shoot at them."

During an interview on the Just the News, No Noise TV show, Walters criticized GOP Oklahoma state Rep. Mark McBride, saying he tried to silence him due to his speaking out against extreme LGBTQ propaganda in public schools. He also said that McBride gets a lot of donations from teachers' unions.

"He partners with the LGBTQ plus extremist groups to try to silence me....two years ago from talking about pornographic material in our schools," Walters said. "So he tells me to be quiet about it. [To not] let parents know about it......pushing this agenda in our schools."

Walters went on to say that state representatives, both Democrat and Republican, put a provision in a budget bill to silence Walters from speaking out and he is attempting to get Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to veto it. 

"We had the minority of Republicans vote with the Democrats to get this across the finish line to try to silence our efforts here," he said. 

According to a report from Tulsa World, a provision that was put in the budget bill would prevent Walters from spending taxpayer money on a public relations firm that gets Walters television gigs on television.

The Journal Record reports that SB 1122 has a stipulation that states that no department funds can be used “for the purpose of securing media interviews, public relations, or other public promotional purposes." There are exceptions if the interviews are required for a federal grant program.

Walters alleges that the language in the provision would cripple the superintendent's office and not allow him to speak to the public about what is going on in the schools. 

"What this language would do is completely cripple our agency," he said. "We can't have a website. We can't communicate outwardly what's going on in our schools. We can't talk about what the teachers unions are doing inside our schools to dictate this DEI nonsense to our kids."

Walters is well known for speaking out against "wokeness" in public schools and pushing back against teachers unions. 

"Governor Stitt has been a great ally," Walters said, later adding that his people have been speaking with the governor's office. "So you know, we're advocating for him to veto the bill. He's got a couple of weeks to make a decision there."