OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A state lawmaker is raising renewed ethical concerns into State Superintendent Ryan Walters after an announcement this week he’s stepping down and entering the private sector.
Walters announced over social media Wednesday night he’s taking the job as CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance. The group was launched in March under its’ parent organization The Freedom Foundation.
The Teacher Freedom Alliance’s website says it helps educators exercise their First Amendment rights to voluntary associate in support of teaching successive generations of free, moral and upright American citizens. The group serves as an alternative for educators who don’t align with ideals in traditional teachers unions. The website says it has over 3,000 members.
Walters shared in public statements and social media posts this week his plan is to destroy traditional teachers unions and give teachers freedom from the “liberal, woke agenda.”
This past spring News 4 reported that Oklahoma Rep. Ellen Pogemiller (D-Oklahoma City) had asked Attorney General Gentner Drummond for an opinion and filed an ethics complaint pertaining to Walters. Pogemiller raised concerns about Walters seemingly promoting the newly formed Teacher Freedom Alliance over other teachers unions in a press release. News 4 received three press releases in one week earlier this year from Walters’ office promoting the Teacher Freedom Alliance and also obtained an email sent to parents.
“I had reached out to the ethics commission, really with the concern that we are not allowed, as state officials, we are prohibited from using state resources to promote private industry,” said Pogemiller.
The Oklahoma Ethics Commission decided in a May 1 meeting there wasn’t an issue to investigate further since the Teacher Freedom Alliance is a non-profit group and ethics rules allow the promotion so long as an elected official receives nothing for doing so.
Pogemiller said Drummond’s office informed her there wasn’t anything they could do.
Pogemiller said after watching Walters’ announcement that he was vacating his position to join the same organization he promoted, she reached out to the Ethics Commission again Thursday.
“Hey, he can still be held accountable if we can show that he had private gain through using his state position,” said Pogemiller.
News 4 contacted Oklahoma attorney A.J. Ferate, who has nearly two decades of experience in election law, to weigh in on if Pogemiller’s complaint will go anywhere. Ferate said there would have to be some sort of a set up by the bureaucrats within the Ethics Commission. He said they would have to find some sort of cause of action to reconsider the complaint. He said they would then still need to actually take a vote before any investigation into Walters could begin. Ferate said that likely won’t be on the table since Walters has resigned, and a news release from the Teacher Freedom Alliance said he’d start the job as CEO on October 1.
“By the time any investigation opens against Mr. Walters, he’ll probably already be out of office, and the Ethics Commission won’t have any authority to investigate anything that he’s doing,” said Ferate.
Pogemiller says no outcome will change how she personally feels about Walters after his decision.
“Walters is noise,” said Pogemiller. “He’s not actually working to improve education for students.”
News 4 reached out to a spokesperson for Walters, the Teacher Freedom Alliance and an Oklahoma member of the Teacher Freedom Alliance for comment Thursday but did not hear back from any on them.
The next Ethics Commission meeting is scheduled for October 9. Walters has not submitted a resignation letter according to Governor Kevin Stitt’s office. The Governor cannot appoint an individual to serve the rest of Walters’ term until Walters turns in that resignation.
