'Conservatives are winning on education': Oklahoma schools chief declares
WASHINGTON — A prominent state education official celebrated that “conservatives are winning on education” as he urged people aligned with the Republican Party to take a more active role in advocating for reforms in public schools.
Oklahoma’s Republican State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters made his observation at the Family Research Council’s annual Pray, Vote, Stand Summit during a panel discussion on the topic of “Education in America: Hope from the States” moderated by the FRC’s Meg Kilgannon that also featured Lori Cisneros, a school board member in Kern County, California.
Walters spoke about his efforts to reform education in Oklahoma, specifically highlighting his push to ensure that the Bible is in every classroom in the state. He also addressed the state’s unsuccessful effort to launch the first Catholic charter school in the U.S. "We’ve got to get back to the basics," he said. "We’ve got to get back to truth. We’ve got to get back to American history, patriotism, and we are very proud that we are the first state in the country to put the Bible back in every classroom."
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“How do you teach history without the Bible?” he asked. “How do you explain why the pilgrims came to America without the Bible? How do you explain our rights coming from God without talking about the Bible? How do you explain Abraham Lincoln’s speeches and almost every United States president that routinely quoted scripture without the Bible? This is common sense, folks. The Bible has to be a part of the curriculum in the classroom. Our kids need to understand the influence that it had on this country.”
Walters suggested that the political Left has worked to remove the Bible from public schools “because they wanted to turn our schools into indoctrination centers to tell your kids that this has always been a secular society — there’s no God, there’s no faith, our country is a terrible place, don’t study our history.” He declared, “That has to end now or this country will not continue to exist.”
“We were very proud to be the first state to have a religious charter school,” added Walters, though he lamented that the state's “Supreme Court came in and said it was unconstitutional," which he described as "completely bogus."
He assured those gathered at Pray, Vote, Stand that he and others in Oklahoma are “appealing that to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Walters expressed hope that the justices would decide whether parents could send their children to a Christian charter school if they chose to do so, "we want to empower you to do that," he added. The elected official also spoke about the “stark difference” in education policy between Democrats and Republicans, noting how the presidential debates have spent very little time on the topic of education and offered his theory as to why.
Walters’ remarks come at a time when conservative advocacy organizations such as the 1776 Project PAC have emerged for the purpose of getting reform-minded individuals opposed to so-called “woke” ideology, critical race theory and sexual content in public school curriculum and school libraries elected to school boards. The group endorsed Walters in his ultimately successful bid to become State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2022.
Cisneros identified herself as one such “regular person who decided to take a stand” by running for her local school board. She detailed how she ended up defeating an incumbent in the heavily populated, Republican-leaning Kern County, California, winning her 2022 election with more than 60% of the vote.
Walters proclaimed: “Conservatives are winning on education now. Our positions are common sense. It’s what parents want, it’s what grandparents want; it’s what taxpayers want.”
He contended that the absence of education as a topic from the presidential debates stems from a desire on the part of the corporate press to prevent the American public from seeing that the Democratic presidential ticket of “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is pushing the most radical, Marxist agenda onto our kids.” Walters also expressed concern about efforts to “put tampons in the boys’ bathrooms” at schools, describing it as paying homage to the LGBT community and telling children that “this is a racist, evil country.”
Walters contrasted that vision with Republicans’ push for universal school choice and efforts to stress “American greatness” in school curriculum. He cited his tenure in Oklahoma and the media blackout on education as “what happens when conservatives actually play offense.”
According to Walters, “For far too long in education," Republicans decided to "'just give them more money and then we’ll tinker with the standards.’”
Walters rejected the previous Republican approach to education, declaring: “No! Our education system has been hijacked by socialists. You have to get it back and then you’ve got to be aggressive, play offense.”
“Make sure that our kids understand American exceptionalism, make sure they understand the role of Christianity […] in our country’s history. Make sure that parents are the ones who are empowered to make choices for their kids,” he asserted. “This is finally a position that we are winning on. And Republicans and any elected official need to hear this loud and clear: Americans are sick and tired of backing down to woke mobs.”
Walters further maintained that “people want to see schools get back to where they were,” adding, “They want to hear about American exceptionalism. They want their kids to know about the role that faith played in our history.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
