Ryan Walters Invents the Law

 Once you are convinced God is on your side, you are capable of justifying every sort of crime imaginable.

The late science fiction author, Mike McQuay

That certainly seems to be the case with Ryan Walters who is the current Superintendent of the Oklahoma State Board of Education. As has been noted previously, Brother Walters in waging a personal crusade to remake the Oklahoma Public School System into Christian Nationalist academies. Included in the curriculum would be revisions of history, civics, and, one presumes, science which would make the Inner Party of George Orwell's Oceania proud.

To achieve this goal, Ryan Walters has to eviscerate the powers and historical rights of local school boards to manage their own affairs and set their own curriculum. Anyone objecting to his personal vision of what public education should be and how it should be controlled must be, dealt with.

That includes teachers, unions, state legislators, students, judges, and members of the public. Not to mention the local media, especially those who question his run amok spending of taxpayer money to fund his relentless campaign of personal promotion.

We can now include State Senator, Mary Boren on that list. Wednesday, Boren attempted to attend a state board executive meeting--which is allowed by state law. She was denied entry and immediately complained to the state AG's office. It had ruled in mid July she could show up at executive sessions, but Walters and his merry band of fanatics have never let legal shit get in their way before, so they simply acted as if they didn't know the ruling existed--despite an email sent to each of them, explaining it.  After the meeting Walters told reporters, "I've got left wing democrats like Mary that want to come in and make it where we can't remove pedophiles from the classrooms. That's what she is wanting to do. She's wanting to disrupt the process." 

Earlier in the week, Bixby School Superintendent, Rob Miller posted on social media school districts had still not received their allocations of Title 1 federal funding. Ryan Walters responded with, "He's a liar, I mean he's really a true embarrassment. He knows every year when he gets Title 1 funds in. Rob is a clown and a liar, so he knows that he's an embarrassment." 

Ah yes, our man Ryan Walters is always quite the professional.

Well, when you have grand plans like he does, sometimes you can get a bit snippy at all those woke liberals in charge of Oklahoma. 

You know, like the people running the districts who insist that they, not the State Board of Education are in charge of local curriculums. A little fact the AG has also ruled on in their favor. However Walters has plowed on, insisting his mandate that bibles be in every state classroom and taught in history classes as the inspiration for and the foundation of the American republic is, The Law.

He has issued dark warnings that any teacher refusing to use the bible as a text book will be de-certified for breaking, The Law. That it isn't The Law at all, it's just him saying it is, doesn't matter. Legislature? Governor? Who needs those leftist bastards? We are talking about doing the work of our Lord and Savior, Don...oops...Jesus Christ. 

Actually there has been a law, passed by the legislature and signed by Oklahoma's last democratic governor, Brad Henry which states the bible can be taught in public schools under certain strict conditions. It has to be an elective course exploring characters, stories, and poetry found there in a historical context only. It can't, however, be taught to promote Christianity over other religious traditions, or to the exclusions of those traditions. In addition, state funds cannot be used to pay for any religious text, or texts or iconography. (Republican legislators tried to pass a constitutional amendment changing that last part in 2016. It was resoundingly rejected by the voters of this state on the same day 65.3% of them cast their ballots for Donald J. Trump)   

So much for Walters' plan to use state money to pay for all those bibles in the classrooms. 

Of course, as we know, minor things, like the will of the people, have never stopped fascists like Ryan Walters. He's already promised to go to the U.S. Supreme Court with his proposal to use state money to pay for a Catholic charter school. Going there to argue election results are unconstitutional doesn't seem that far fetched for a man of his political bent and ambitions.

Indeed. At the Oklahoma State Board of Education the law seems to be whatever Ryan Walters says it is. Or, as Senator Mary Boren said, "He invents the law the way he wants it to be and proceeds accordingly." 

That's right, baby. Whether we like it or not, Ryan Walters is going to make our kids and grandkids be good, and just like him.

8-3-24