We all know of and despise Ryan Walters, the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Oklahoma. He’s a Christo-Fascist of the worst kind who has been striving to destroy public education in his state.
He has tried to purchase Trump Bibles for public schools, eventually settling for sending a few hundred to AP Government teachers who don’t need them.
He rewrote the social studies standards to indoctrinate children with revisionist pro-Christian mythology, got the state’s Board of Education to approve those standards without telling them he made additional changes, got sued over it, and got blocked from implementing those standards by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
He used public money to fund a religious charter school, a decision the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court later voted not to overturn that decision.
Despite a statewide teacher shortage, he said that teachers transferring from blue states like California had to take a special “America First” test to gauge their level of patriotism. The whole charade was just a publicity stunt for the right-wing group PragerU.
He sued an atheist group for warning public schools that they needed to follow the law and not allow staffers to push religion on kids. A judge dismissed that frivolous lawsuit with a blistering takedown of his pathetic arguments.
He also tried forcing teachers to make the Bible part of their curriculum, tried to put Christian chaplains in public schools, tried to mandate displays of the Ten Commandments in those schools, claimed the Tulsa Race Massacre had nothing to do with race, falsely insisted that President Joe Biden wanted “to destroy our Christian faith,” formed a faith committee to examine prayer in public schools, appointed the troll who runs Libs of TikTok to a statewide library advisory board, and sent out a “sample prayer” for teachers to use for the people of Israel (and definitely not the innocent people living in Gaza).
He pissed off Republicans in his own party, too. They said he was withholding $150 million for security enhancements that had already been allocated to public schools, hiding information about how he spent taxpayer dollars for his office’s travel budget, failing to fulfill open records requests in a timely manner, and refusing to spend money that he was legally obligated to spend on asthma inhalers for students. (Alas, there were not enough votes to impeach him.)
…
Just this week, he announced that every high school in the state would have a chapter of Turning Point USA in honor of Charlie Kirk, even though Walters has no actual ability to force schools to launch extracurricular groups and even though high school students already have the ability to start their own chapters if they want to.
But wait, I said this was good news. It is! Ryan Walters is resigning!
Walters, 40, said Wednesday night on Fox News that he is stepping down as state superintendent of public instruction to become the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit that says it assists educators “in their mission to develop free, moral, and upright American citizens.”
“We’re going to destroy the teachers unions,” Walters said on Fox. “We have seen the teachers unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools.”
It is fitting that he is stepping down to join a fanatical, conservative, anti-teacher organization. May he wither away in his new bubble of contempt and hatred for education — it’s where he belongs.
Now the big question: will he be replaced by someone sane? It’s Oklahoma, so probably not.
He’s probably just disappointed because he didn’t get raptured the other day.
I’d want to suggest that every state has somebody like this. They may not be famous enough to be noticed yet, and they may not have had the power (compliance) to implement the agenda items (particularly ‘blue’ states or counties), but they’re there in every state, all just like him in their goals and practices, their hypocrisy and their utter corruption, and all trying to find supporters in order to get the power to implement this agenda of destroying public education.
Uh the article about his resignation doesn’t say why (the REAL reason why, that is).
Seems he got caught in a meeting with porn images running on an office TV…
…and it wasn’t the first time.
Why do they even care?
Compared to everything else he has done or tried, that is a minor event.
I’m also sure that the other Oklahoma officials also have…porn running on their TVs, internet computers, and phones.
The 3 sacraments of fundie xianity are hate, lies, and hypocrisy.
They are very good at all three of these.
Contrary to what j morales thinks, there is a superabundance of these xtian terrorists infecting our society. When caught in their bs they are shuffled around but, like cockroaches, they are never really gone. Prime example, catholic cult child molesting priests moved around and hidden but almost never punished.
Oklahoma rates 50th out of 51 states and territories in education.
You can easily tell that Ryan Waters could not care less and did nothing to improve that ranking.
I always wonder if the residents of Red states ever get tired of being poor, backwards, sick, and ignorant.
Red states have significantly lower life expectancies than Blue states. The difference can be as much as 6 years.
Maybe, who knows? I’ve never seen it. They voted in Trump after all and look how that is working out.
Hey, raven @6, i’m sure oklahoma is proud it is 50 out of 51; almost the top of the pile. What they will never admit is, it’s a Pile of xtian terror Crap.
@3
About that:
Oklahoma’s big “TV nudes” scandal was… a Jackie Chan movie on a Samsung streaming service
So basically, it was a nothing-burger.
@ Raven # 6
I linked to the same study in a previous thread when some nitwit in the OK state legislature floated a mandate of a Kirk Idol in every public institution of higher learning (presumably paid for with tax dollars) because nothing improves safety and educational outcomes like promoting bigotry and dogma
@6 raven, @7 shermanj
Of course, complicating your simplistic narrative is that the top of that pile is a blue state. Educational opportunities are almost entirely based on circumstances of your birth, and people in New Mexico didn’t win the jackpot either financially or demographically.
To provide greater perspective on this issue of ranking of states. As @6 raven pointed out there are many criteria to consider.
According to https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/blue-states New Mexico is only a very slightly blue state at on a range of 3 out of possible 20.
There are a lot of sites that rank education and there are MANY different criteria and data sources used. There is not one definitive list. There is no one state that is at the bottom of all of these, however there are some clear grouping trends.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state
https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/public-school-rankings-by-state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment
https://statwise.org/50-states-ranked-best-to-worst/
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/how-states-compare
https://www.newsweek.com/most-least-educated-states-america-ranked-1583019
PZ, I didn’t mean to require your involvement in my comment. I presume it is because I listed so many URLs for source material. I am just trying to provide a broader perspective.
[meta + OT]
‘Contrary to what j morales thinks, there is a superabundance of these xtian terrorists infecting our society.’
This is because I (in another thread) noted that not all Christians are perforce terrorists, even in the USA, in response to your claim that it was redundant to append ‘terrorist’ when talking about a Christian. Tsk.
Be aware that I know that your is utter hyperbole.
(An abundance already, but no… the lily is gilded! :)
—
Re: “PZ, I didn’t mean to require your involvement in my comment. I presume it is because I listed so many URLs for source material.”
Be aware this site restricts how many naked URLs are allowed per comment; there is no involvement by PZ other than his set-up back in 2011 or so. It’s caught in the spam queue automatically.
If you want to list more than a few, obfuscate them.
I read that Trump announced that the Superintendent of Public Education in Oklahoma is going to install a Turning Point chapter in every high school in the state. I read about it before I heard he was resigning.
@12. John Morales :
Or, dunno about the netiquette of this but perhaps make a second (or more) comment with those links spread out in multiple comments rather than just 1 maybe? I think the maximum is 3? 5? Say PS (if necess. PPS) or Part I , part II, part III etc.. That’s what I’ll tend to do.
Does this work & is this seen as ok for / by most folks here?
The limit is 7 links per comment.
It’s no trouble for me. I check the queue every day, and it’s usually only a few comments being held.
@8. Reginald Selkirk : “Oklahoma’s big “TV nudes” scandal was… a Jackie Chan movie on a Samsung streaming service..”
Huh. Seen a few Jackie Chan movies but can’t recall that one – don’t recall seeing much nudity or eroticism or any scenes that could really be called porn-ish in those martial arts movies albiet been a long time since I’ve watched any now & can’t recallif Isaw that particular one so I could be wrong.
Except as #3 acroyear noted :
So was that time(s) another co-incidental movie scene thing or worse – although really as long as its consensual who cares what porn folks watch in private. Oh yeah, the hypocritical
moral majorityRepugGuardians of moralsprudish enforcers of their own narrow repressed & warped sexual opinions.@10 the Trump enabling bad faith troll “beholder” :
Oh For Fucks Sake! You really have to stretch and go far outside the topic to get some way of bashing the only actual alternative to the Trump Fascists in even here and now hey?
Do you get paid per attack on the Democratic party by someone or are you contractually obliged to squeeze some anti-Democratic comment into every thread or something?
Rather New Mexico than Oaklahoma although of course individual ciurcumstacnes in individual states and for that matter state schools are obvs gunna vary. Of topic and trolling much huh?
Oh and do note the whole attacking state schools for not being willfully ignorant and pushing Trump’s warped version of religious is very much a Repug thing NOT a Democratic party thing so you, again, unintentionally, highlight how different the Non-Fascist party is from the Fascist one that you have aided and supported -and still do here. WTF is wrong with you troll?
[OT]
StevoR, re:
I took a brief look.
Seems to me that the claim is related to this recent article: https://journalrecord.com/2025/09/18/oklahoma-walters-explicit-images-movie-investigation/
(Fishing desperately, that is)
All this euphoria is well and good, but the fat lady hasn’t sung yet.
I just woke up from a badly-timed nap with the notion that Roddenberry based James Kirk on the British Empire.
Go Boldly … and f-bleep-uck everything with a … receptacle.
[chigau, white man’s burden. He probably did.]
@17 StevoR
I had nothing to say about it that hasn’t already been said by others here. Instead I was goaded into commenting by raven’s snobbery. Everything’s red or blue for them, it gets tiring to read for the thousandth time. Kind of like your comments in that respect, Stevo.
@20 chigau
Starfleet was the British Navy IN SPACE!, at least that’s how I understood it. Rather the other way around growing up watching Star Trek, I originally thought of navies as Starfleet in a bathtub.
@ 違う, Morales
He was based on Horatio Hornblower (or at least the series was if not the character). So yes totally British Empire. This is not a stunning new revelation but very well known to fans of TOS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
Stevo:
X-D
(Someone in this thread shows clear signs of being obsessed Stevo. It ain’t who you think.)
P.S. Are you being paid to blame everyone for Trump except… the people who voted for Trump?
Oh, BTW Stevo, after failing in offering a viable alternative to Trump with her pledge to continue to arm and fund Gazan genocide, Harris has since come out as having one foot firmly planted on the transphobia train. Apparently, she decided she wasn’t disappointing enough already.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/09/kamala-harris-expresses-concerns-over-trans-athletes-in-new-memoir/
Aaaaand…
Rejecting a gay man as running mate because he was gay:
(Same link above.)
(Apparently a homophobic, transphobic funder of genocide was our alternative to fascism. According to Stevo.)
it’s a dumb question but I do not see why the conservative religious (not just christians) can not be content to just believe and worship and live their religious centered life but in stead are so determined that everyone should follow their own religion by force if nothing else.
@27 Silentbob
Are you saying Trump isn’t both things as well? If he is then you don’t have an argument.
@26 Silentbob
Saying the electorate is homophobic isn’t the same as being homophobic, necessarily.
Considering they’ll just put another Bible-fucker into the role, I fail to see how this is “good news.”
@ 28
First there’s the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 16-20) which has been the goto excuse for Christians to impose their religion upon others. God, in his Jesus avatar, told his followers to make the world Christian so they will dutifully obey whether it’s through door-to-door missionaries or at the point of a sword.
Then there is the belief that Satan wants to tempt the faithful away from Christ and uses the media, the academy, secular government, etc. to do his diabolical bidding. It’s not enough to “live and let live” when you think that godless heathens are constantly trying to lure you into damnation. To secure their deity’s victory over sin, they must purge the un-Christian contamination upon our government and culture so they can properly live in accordance with their dogma. Coexistence is impossible.
I agree, but for the exact opposite reasons: Secular society and progress can’t hope to survive when you have an aggressive, regressive sub-culture that rejects science and equality. You must stamp it out or quarantine it. As much as I despise theism and religion for its supernatural fantasies, I could happily ignore it if it wasn’t that a large portion of the faithful seek to oppress, imprison, or kill me because I won’t tolerate or play along with their superstitions and bigotries.
@32 Akira
The very concept of heaven and hell being tiied to godliness leads to totalitarianism and suppression of dissent as a moral imperative.
Thanks, PZ for allowing my comment and providing us with rules about URLs. I hope the info helps. I appreciate the info John Morales provided, too.
However, one of our organization’s leaders said I must communicate his experience.
He was lured to oklahoma by a tech job offer. They spent over 3 years there. They were constantly threatened, yelled at everywhere by xtian terrorists because they are Jewish. This is another indication of how maniacal and intolerant xtian terrorists are. And, they are everywhere.
This, and all the other stories we post, are direct, irrefutable first-hand knowledge from those that are here in the united states, living in this mess. And, it’s getting worse all the time “he announced that every high school in the state would have a chapter of Turning Point USA”. I’m try not to vomit or just curl up into a ‘futile’ position.
beholder #10
New Mexico also has twice the number (18% vs 9%) of English Language Learners in its school system as Oklahoma. I’m sure this has an affect on the educational performance of the state.
@28 unclefrogy
Simply put, it’s selection pressure. Without the strategies of displacing their competitors, outpopulating them, and converting the rest by force, Christianity would have been an unremarkable 1st-century Anatolian cult that died out soon after it started. We would have never heard of it.
@35 Walter Solomon
Indeed. Yet another example of a circumstance at birth that wouldn’t be a disadvantage in a just and well-funded education system, but is a disadvantage in ours.
Jesus wept
df #23
woosh
Heh. I know, chigau.
Thought the encoding was the message, though it was modulated.
(I did wonder if you’d speak up, O basement-boy! ;)
@ 違う, Morales
(For those who don’t know, “df” is this cowardly troll’s way of insulting me. It stands for “demented fuckwit”. Passive agressive cowardice is all he’s ever had and all he ever will have. Beyond pathetic.)
@34. shermanj : ” They spent over 3 years there. They were constantly threatened, yelled at everywhere by xtian terrorists because they are Jewish. “
So much for the whole “Judaeo” part of the Judaeo-Christian huh?
@22 Trump enabling, disingenuous troll “beholder” :
(Italics added for clarity)
Not in this thread lying troll.
I was specifically referring to this thread here where you – & ONLY you – felt you had to attack the Democratic party and refer to blue states vs red ones. People can read it & see for themselves you know – did you intend to insult everyone’s intelligence by your comment(s) here?
Also, more generally no. Very few people here say what you do or agree with your obsessive, one-sided, anti-Democratic party, Trump enabling, trollish shit-postings. There was Vicar but they at least had the decency to stick the flounce when they fucked off. Silentbob is the only person I can think of – memory serving – who supports you here & even he doesn’t go remotely as far as you do with the de facto pro-Trump crap you spew.
Thinking of Questions for Silentbob :
(I) Who was the better choice in last year’s Presidential election – Kamala Harris or Trump?
Also, (II) why do you, Silentbob keep defending the bad faith troll I’m responding to here?
Plus yet again, (III) why won’t you simply ignore John Morales instead of always trolling and attacking him if you think his comments have as little value as you claim to think?
I bet that coward won’t answer but guess we’ll see – and on (Q1) think on what that implies that given that choice that you, beholder, in effect, in reality, de facto, chose Trump.
Dude, imagine how I feel & how sick I am & have been of seeing your crap and your lies and disinfo and corrosive, counter-productive, outright evil assistance for Trump and attacks on the ONLY person – Kamala Harris – & ONLY party – the Democratic one – who could democratically stop fascism from destroying the UsoA & doing incalculable harm to the planet we all live on and have to share for years and years on this blog especially last year when it mattered!
You, bad faith Trumpy troll “beholder”, have made the world a vastly worse place by megaparsecs when you helped foist Trump’s fascism on our pale blue dot & I will always hang that particular dead albatross round your neck, shove it into your nostrils and hope you choke on the stench of it. Go rethink your life and your views.
I also note that you make no rebuttal and provide no case against what I’m saying since what I have written is accurate and based on reality unlike your crap here.
As for raven’s #6 that too was entirely correct and unlike your #10 was on topic. Why did you find it “goading” to note the red states are ” poor, backwards, sick, and ignorant.
Red states have significantly lower life expectancies than Blue states. “
Why did you find that “goading” and why do you find it necessary to attack blue states and defend red ones? Why do you even now keep attacking the only alternative to the actual Fascist party?
@ Silentbob – various & multiple here :
No. In so many ways, no.
As well as a strawperson fallacy & not a real quote by me.
First, note that anyone who did NOT vote for Kamala Harris helped Trump win. The ONLY way to stop Trump winning was to vote for Kamala Harris given the reality of the very messed up USoA electoral system. That ain’t my fault – that’s how the USoA’s piss poor excuse for a (former now) Democracy works.
Am sure I’ve asked you before & you have previously run away from answering this question but what part of this exactly do you fail to understand?
I blame those who did NOT vote for Kamala Harris and the Democratic party when they needed to do so to stop fascism for what they did. This includes non-voters and it includes de facto if indirect Trump voters like the bad faith troll beholder who did a lot more than merely vote for Trump but also argued strongly here – & I presume elsewhere – against the ONLY real alternative to Trump.
As I expect you, Silentbob, already know given the number of times I’ve already said this on this blog making your argument here already a bad faith disingenuous one.
Also obvs no, I’m not paid to tell the truth or voice my opinions here. I don’t have to be. It’s a bit like the projecting Repug arguments that anyone with views left of Prager U must be being paid by Soros and equally ridiculous. Dunno that this needs stating but stating anyhow.
Fixed it For You.
Perhaps don’t assume people won’t read your links and call you out on your utter misrepresentation of reality in future hey? You did read your own source there right? It don’t say what you falsely allege it does.
Even if it did – & it don’t – the alternative was Trump & he is exponentially many times worse than her on this as everyone with a fifth of a brain knows. See again Q1 asked of you in #41.
Simply false again and an obvious misrepresentation of reality by you yet again. Kamala correctly called the UsoA electorate too homophobic and bigoted to accept a ticket with her & Buttigieg combined. She correctly assessed the reality that too many Americans are prejudiced against queer and trans people – sadly, she did not correctly estimate that too many are even now still too fucking misogynist although the BernieBros vs HRC should perhaps have been a clue. Her problem was over-estimating the goodness of the American people not under-estimating it and that is damming of American voters not her. Those who opposed her and HRC as presidential candidates need to hang their heads in shame and take the blame they deserve here.
We’ll never know how a Kamala-Buttigieg election campaign would’ve gone vs the Kamala -Walz one did just as we’ll never know how a Sanders vs Trump contest would’ve gone. Moot now. No excuse for NOT backing the ONLY alternative Americans actually had to Trump-Vance. Would it have been better or worse? Unless we can find a parallel cosmos where that was the case and, even then, who knows? But you don’t win elections by just appealing to your base – you have to win the center and more voters rather than less and anything you can do to do that is, well, how you get elected. The we-insists-upon-a-perfect-unicorn-&-nothing-else crowd really, really NOT HELPFUL here.
BTW. Would you have preferred a Buttigieg candidacy to a Kamala one? Reckon he’d have done better or worse? Meh, moot question but still. Note Mayor Pete copped it from all the Pu(t)ri(di)ty Disunity scumbags here too.. Noting but their mythical rainbow-farting imaginary phantom would ever do for them and yet it doesn’t exist and probly wouldn’t win if it did. You (USA-ites) have the candidates you have & the choices you have and you have to choose wisely – and you did not. Now you are under Fascist Trumpist rule and are taking the planet to hell with you and if you think the rest of the world doesn’t hate you for that esp all who could’ve chosen better and didn’t then you’d yet again be wrong.
Fixed for ya.
Yet the USoA chose the demented, proven liar, known rapist, science-denying, obvs evil, white, supposedly super-rich male who is blatantly genocidally pro-Israel, racist, homophobic, misogynist, transphobic instead thanks to the likes of “beholder” and the Abandon Biden / Harris movement among others. Thanks also to voter suppression, gerrymandering & quite possibly Musk cheating too.
Silentbob @39: Really, still persisting in misgendering chigau? You calling anyone else a troll is a fucking joke.
@36. The Trump enabling disingenuous troll : “Indeed. Yet another example of a circumstance at birth that wouldn’t be a disadvantage in a just and well-funded education system, but is a disadvantage in ours.”
Ah.
So you can see that reality is, well, reality at times and yet you still (?) pretend that somehow voting for Stein wasn’t indirectly voting for Trump – which it was – and refuse to recognise the same political realities that you occassionally will acknowledge eg as quoted above.
Your bad faith here further proven You’re not that stupid — but you are.. Paradox huh?
So as I predicted there despite having a couple of days in which to answer – during which he has been active – Silentbob is yet to answer my questions in #41 above here.