Republican legislator urges federal investigation into Ryan Walters

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Republican Oklahoma State Representative Mark McBride is calling for a federal investigation into State Superintendent Ryan Walters.

Rep. McBride, a leader on education in the state legislature, has become one of Walters’ most vocal critics. McBride has frequently raised concerns about Walters’s conduct in office, including apparent mismanagement of funds.

Multiple recent reports have shown Ryan Walters has failed to apply for crucial federal grants and withheld funding from schools meant to protect the health and safety of students.

The growing frustration and concern surrounding Walters’s event prompted more than two dozen House Republicans to demand an impeachment investigation. Shortly after those calls were made public, Walters held an unorthodox press conference also calling for his own impeachment.

Now, with the legislature adjourned until the Spring, McBride is urging the Biden administration to take action.

In an interview with KOCO 5 news in Oklahoma City, McBride said the call for action wasn’t political.

“I wish it was a Republican administration, but it’s not,” McBride said, pre-empting critiques from Walters that he was asking for an investigation from a Democratic administration. “These are the people we have to go to.”

Schools face the brunt of failures from State Department of Education under Ryan Walters’ leadership

McBride says the concerns about Ryan Walters are not coming from him alone, nor simply from his House colleagues.

“I don’t know a school district that hasn’t had questions about the [state and federal] funds,” McBride said. These questions include how much funding each district will receive and when it is going to be made available.

This enhanced call for accountability comes as school begins for students all across the state. Just last week, schools finally received word on one key source of funding: Title I.

According to FOX 23 news in Tulsa, school districts were told they would receive estimates from the State Department of Education in May. Not only did these final amounts come three months late, they were substantially less than the original estimates OSDE provided.

State Representative Tammy West, a Republican colleague of McBride, said the delay and confusion are likely to cause “great uncertainty” for schools, resulting in “scrambling at the last minute”.