Ryan Walters Comments on Edmond Student’s Flag Display, Current State of Education Department

State Superintendent Ryan Walters joined News 9 at 9 to discuss the recent controversy surrounding a student displaying a flag on his truck at school and provide an update on the investigation into his department, an impeachment trial, and other recent events.

Friday, August 23rd 2024, 9:39 am

By: News 9

State Superintendent Ryan Walters joined News 9 at 9 to discuss the recent controversy of a student displaying a flag on his truck at school and to provide an update on the investigation into his department, an impeachment trial and other recent events.

Walters said the State Department of Education would be investigating an incident in which a student at Edmond North High School was told he could not display an American flag on his truck at school.

Walters said his department wants to encourage student patriotism and ensure that their First Amendment rights are protected.

“We're investigating it to figure out how in the world a decision got made to tell a young man to take an American flag off his truck,” Walters said. “We have seen parents across the state are so tired of people, of young people, being told to hate their country or not be proud of their country. We want our young people to be proud of our country.”

Walters has recently come under criticism for the timing of the distribution of funds to Oklahoma school districts.

He said that all districts had received their funding and that the delay came from an opinion they were waiting on from the Attorney General to clarify the rollover of funds.

“We got the clarity. We had the money out within, I think, 72 hours. The districts have the money from last year, money for this year. It's all in the district's hands right now,” Walters said. “We were able to move very quickly once we got that legal clarity.”

Walters said he did not regret how long it took them to distribute the funds because the districts were not missing any money. The question they needed clarity on was whether the unused funds could be carried over.

“The question always was, 'We didn't spend it, so should we spend it in the next year?'” Walters said. “We've got to have clarity before you spend millions of taxpayer dollars to make sure it's legally aboveboard when legislation isn't clear. That's what we did.”

A federal report came out criticizing the department's spending of $2.7 billion, which Walters clarified was from the 2022-23 school year.

“When I came into office, I was very clear about this. I had major concerns upon taking office on federal programming. That's why you saw changes in personnel. That's why you saw changes in practices,” Walters said.

Walters expressed confidence in the changes made and mentioned that the report would be easy to respond to, as all changes had been reported to the federal government.

Walters commented on his call to start an impeachment trial against him on Tuesday.

He said no progress has been made because those trying to impeach him do not have sufficient evidence. He said he wants to talk about schools and not keep playing "

“If you want to impeach me, if you want to continue to push lies, and I'm stealing federal dollars and all this nonsense they've accused, those are serious accusations. Let's put it all out there in an impeachment trial,” Walters said. “There's no evidence because it's not true, so I hope we can get back to the business of talking about our schools. That is my laser focus.”

He said the call for investigation and impeachment concerns the 2026 gubernatorial race, but that is not his current focus.

“I could care less about a future governor's race. That might be the speaker's, you know, ambition here. My goal is to have the best year possible for every kid in the state and to continue to support,” Walters said.

The AG also expressed an opinion on state lawmakers being allowed to be in executive sessions.

Walters said the opinion contradicted the legal advice the board he sits on has received, so they were taking time to consider its legality.

“It's really not about the policy. It's about legality,” Walters said. “Should they be allowed these in these boardrooms and these types of executive sessions? And again, we appreciate the clarity the Attorney General gave us on that. And again, the board's evaluating that.”

Walters expressed his excitement for the upcoming school year and said he will continue to make that his priority and fight for the best possible education for Oklahomans.