Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visiting Doral Academy Preparatory School in Doral, Florida on March 18, 2025 (U.S. Department of Education/Flickr)
Far-right Christian nationalist and Oklahoma schools superintendent Ryan Walters has generated nonstop controversy in his state — most recently, for pushing a policy he says will screen applicants for evidence of "woke" bias by using talk radio host Dennis Prager's PragerU program. And he is so controversial that according to NOTUS, even a top Trump administration official wanted him barred from an event she attended.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was in Oklahoma on Tuesday, August 19 for a bill signing and visited a charter school, Dove Science Academy, with Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). And NOTUS' Reese Gorman reports that "conservative firebrand" Walters "was noticeably missing."
Gorman, in an article published on August 21, explains, "Walters in particular has been a big advocate for school choice, specifically for giving families more access to religious and conservative schools. But he was nowhere to be found on Tuesday — and that was by design. According to three sources familiar with the matter, McMahon and her team specifically asked Oklahoma officials not to include Walters on the trip, fearing his presence would be a distraction."
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Gorman notes that Walters, in an August 8 statement, "claimed that the Department of Education had given the state the required waiver to eliminate end-of-year testing in public schools." And Walters told the far-right outlet Real America's Voice, "We went to the Trump administration, and they said they were all for it."
"But the administration hadn't approved it," Gorman reports, "and one of the sources cited the incident as a reason McMahon's team did not want Walters at the event. McMahon had to publicly dispute Walters' comments at the Oklahoma event."
Local reporters, on August 19, asked McMahon if she planned to meet with Walters while she was in Oklahoma — to which she responded, "I don't believe that's on my schedule today."
Gorman observes, "This rebuke from a Cabinet secretary in the Trump administration does not bode well for Walters' potential gubernatorial bid as he tries to occupy the MAGA lane in a primary. He has routinely attempted to force schools to adhere to a strict conservative ideology, angering many Republicans in the state. Oklahoma ranks near the bottom of the country in nearly all education statistics."
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Read the full NOTUS article at this link.