Oklahoma Watch: How Are State Funds Really Being Used?

Another spotlight on the Oklahoma Department of Education: state funds being used to pay for a national public relations strategy that includes booking national media interviews, producing anti-teacher union commercials, and writing op-eds.

Several lawmakers say State Superintendent Ryan Walters should be banned from spending state funds this way.

It's a story being brought to life by Oklahoma Watch. Executive Director of Oklahoma Watch, Ted Streuli joined News 9 to unfold the story.

When asked why a team of reporters would want to cover this story, Streuli said, "Well, we started on this one probably six months or more ago when we saw the request for proposal, uh for this pr contract, um looking for national interviews on national television, op-eds, and national publications and so forth, which we thought was a little unusual for a State Department of Education. We asked a lot of questions about it. We weren't really getting the kinds of answers, that made us comfortable. So we finally got to see the contract. And once we read that that raised some further concerns "

Oklahoma Watch says that after research, reporters found that they have been spending thousands of dollars on PR campaigns. "It kind of depends on how you read the contract," Streuli said. "There was first, $20,000 or so that was spent upfront before the contract went into effect. There was another $30,000 committed for about a four-month window leading into the beginning of the contract in June of this year. And, then it's a one-year contract that can be renewed annually for up to three years. The amount of those last three years depends on how you read the contract. There are two different exhibits. One says it's $5000 a month. The other says it's $5000 a week."

Streuli stated that the Department of Education's response as to how the money was being spent, was that it was going to help recruit teachers to Oklahoma. However, Streuli says that when reporters saw emails being sent to other news outlets, there wasn't a discussion of recruiting teachers. Instead, Streuli says, "[they were] talking about fentanyl and drag queens and other kind of hot-button topics."

Streuli also stated that Oklahoma Rep. Mark McBride (R- Moore) says he will be introducing language this week with the budget that would put limits on 'that kind of spending'.

News 9 reached out to Superintendent Ryan Walters for a response.

His spokesperson, Dan Isett, says: "Superintendent Walters is proud to tell the story of Oklahoma schools getting back on track and his record of efficiency with taxpayer dollars is unmatched."