Linda McMahon excluded Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters from her Returning Education to the States Tour stop in Oklahoma City, with staff requesting he be kept off the schedule over concerns his presence would be a distraction. McMahon appeared alongside Gov. Kevin Stitt and other Republicans while Walters was omitted. Walters falsely claimed the Trump administration approved his plan to eliminate statewide end-of-year testing; McMahon corrected that the waiver had not completed required steps and declined to meet him. Walters has pursued culture-war policies in schools, including mandated Bible instruction, bans on recognizing transgender and nonbinary students, and a PragerU "anti-woke" test for incoming teachers, and appointed Chaya Raichik to a state library advisory committee despite her controversial history.
The move followed Walters's false claim that the Trump administration had approved his plan to eliminate statewide end-of-year testing. On a right-wing outlet earlier this month, Walters bragged, "We went to the Trump administration and they said they were all for it," Notus reports. That wasn't true. McMahon publicly corrected him, telling reporters the waiver "has not gone through all the different steps that it needs to be." Asked whether she'd meet Walters during her visit, she shot back: "I don't believe that's on my schedule today."
Walters has used his office to impose culture-war priorities on schools, often targeting LGBTQ+ students. He mandated Bible instruction, banned recognition of transgender and nonbinary students, and recently rolled out a PragerU "anti-woke" test for teachers moving in from blue states. He also appointed right-wing extremist Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik to the state's library advisory committee, despite her lack of educational experience and her history of sparking bomb threats against schools she targets online, through employing tactics experts call stochastic terrorism.
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