State Superintendent Ryan Walters says he's proud of the new social studies standards coming next school year. He spoke at a Republican Party event late last Thursday to reflect on the legislative session and rally his base.
Walters addressed a crowd of about 50, who gathered at Praise Fellowship Church of Sapulpa to listen to him and leaders of the state's Republican party rehash the legislative session
He touted the passage of the new social studies standards as a big win this year. They include questioning the 2020 election results and increasing the Bible's presence in classrooms.
And while nearly everyone there, including local GOP members and Bixby Republican Rep. Chris Banning, were nodding their heads, clapping and whooping. One person, Creek County GOP member Misty Stockfleth, asked the superintendent how having Bibles in classrooms would help the state have better educational outcomes.
Walters responded by demonizing Democrats and teachers' unions for trying to destroy American patriotism and what he calls the country's founding principles based on Christianity.
"We have seen the teachers' union try to convince our kids that this isn't a great country," Walters said. "They try to convince our kids that it was a country built on racism. It was a country that they should be embarrassed of, not a country that they should be proud of."
Stockfleth said she voted for Walters in 2022, but that she wouldn't vote for him for Governor if he runs. She wanted change then — better outcomes for students — and three years into Walters' four-year term, she said, she still wants that.
"I didn't expect to see so much religion thrown in," she said. "I thought he would go in and fix more of the school system."
It's not that she's against the Bible, or even the Bible in classrooms, Stockfleth said. It's that when she grew up, going to Tulsa Public Schools, she got in trouble once for having the book in her backpack. She was taught then, she said, that government and religion should not be combined – to protect all religions.
"I was raised by a preacher, so I do believe in the Bible," she said. "But it's just, I don't see how bringing the Bible in is gonna raise us from 49th in the state."
Walters has already faced lawsuits over the Bible-in-classrooms matter. The discussion has mostly regarded the constitutionality of the government teaching religion. Still, Walters talks as if he's already secured his agenda in time to be implemented next year.
"We are a country that was built with Judeo-Christian values," Walters said. "That Bible was there. The founders read from the Bible. The founders quoted the Bible….You don't have America if you don't have that Christian foundation. And the left has stripped it out of our schools. But folks, let me tell you something. We brought it back. We brought it back to our schools."
He also vowed to bounce back from his losses. Mainly, lawmakers' rejection of his ideas to count immigrant children and their parents and verify their citizenship upon enrollment, and to move local school board election dates to align with general elections, making them more politically charged.
Rep. Banning ran House Bill 1151, which would've accomplished the election date move, but it died after the first round of committee meetings.
Speakers at the event, besides Walters, included Oklahoma Republican Party Chair Charity Lynch and Vice Chair Wayne Hill. Both threw their staunch support behind Walters' agenda, as did some of the local chapter members.
At one point, Lynch called Walters the "Trump of Oklahoma" as the superintendent was walking out of the church. She backed Walters' comments before updating attendees on the party's business and upcoming goals, including primarying out "liberal Republicans" next year.
But right before that, the Creek County GOP Chair Sherry Capps made a statement about Walters that shed light on the Oklahoma Republican base's tendency toward him.
"We trust him, and we believe everything he says, don't we?" she said.
Most people cheered in agreement. Some, like Stockfleth, just shrugged their shoulders and chuckled.
