Southwest Ledger (Editor’s Note: This is the second story in a multi-story project about the fallout of former Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ tenure in office.)
OKLAHOMA CITY – His education ideas ranged from purchasing Bibles – namely, the edition endorsed by President Donald Trump – for every classroom in the state to developing a new social studies standard. He also wanted to investigate certain teachers who didn’t fit a preconceived political mold.
During Ryan Walters’ tenure as state school superintendent, he called teachers’ unions “terrorist” organizations and claimed the state’s classrooms were filled with “woke” teachers who were trying to indoctrinate students. Walters also called for a test to measure whether teacher applicants from liberal states had “America First” knowledge.
Then there were the lawsuits – at present, roughly a dozen. Lawsuits filed in response to actions taken by Walters or lawsuits filed by Walters himself.
Today, Walters is no longer in office. But the residue – both political and legal – from his administration could be very expensive, say in the millions of dollars range.
At least that’s what one prominent state constitutional attorney believes.
Bob Burke, an Oklahoma City-based attorney and state historian, said Walters left a wake of legal action that could cost the state millions of dollars before everything is cleared.
“There is a lot of legal action there and it looks expensive,” Burke said. “I think that his antics and him using his position wrongfully to put forth his personal agenda will cost the taxpayers, perhaps, several million dollars.”
And that litigation, Burke said, could also last for quite awhile.
“I would not be surprised if some of Ryan Walters’ litigation goes on for three or four years simply because there will be jury trials and, most likely, appeals,” Burke said. “I believe in 2029 we taxpayers will still be footing the bill for Ryan Walters’ actions.”
Records show that at least five lawsuits were active when Walters resigned from office, though today there have been changes.
For example, shortly after Walters issued his Bible mandate for public schools, a group of residents sued in October 2024, challenging the directive. That lawsuit was recently dismissed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court because the state’s new school superintendent, Lindel Fields, dropped the mandate.
In addition, Walters, as the former state superintendent, sued the federal government in January 2025 over the costs of educating immigrant children in Oklahoma. That lawsuit, too, has been dismissed.
A third lawsuit, this one challenging Walters’ social studies standards, was filed in May 2025 by parents and teachers challenging the process used to adopt the standards. That lawsuit is ongoing.
Additionally, a lawsuit was filed in October 2025 against the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Walters over a culture of child abuse at Kingfisher Public Schools. Walters was eventually dismissed from this lawsuit, claiming the lawsuit was a 'PR stunt.”
Another lawsuit, this one filed in April 2025 over the state’s Open Meetings Act, alleges violations of open meetings laws and improper withholding of records related to the Library Media Advisory Committee. This lawsuit is ongoing, even though a part of the case was dismissed.
Echoing the Open Meetings Act lawsuit, Walters sued the Freedom From Religion Foundation in a separate action.
Former Norman teacher Summer Boismier filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in October 2024. Boismier sued the State Department of Education, the Board of Education and the State Superintendent as agencies and officials of the state after her teaching license was pulled. Boismier also filed a lawsuit against Walters and those school board members who chose to pull her license against a judge’s recommendation.
Walters also faces a September 2025 lawsuit from former OSDE staff member Amy London and a lawsuit filed against him in August 2024 by Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller.
The ever-rising tide of legal action disrupted the superintendent’s entire office.
Sources, who asked not to be identified because they feared retaliation by Walters, said Walters and his senior advisor Matt Langston wanted to tell the legal department how to do their job.
“It was nonstop,” one source said. “If they didn’t get an answer they wanted, we would revisit the question four or five times.”
Instead of working to address education issues, the source said, every decision made at the State Department of Education during Walters’ tenure was “a campaign for his next political office.”
“It was toxic to work in that environment,” the source said. “Ryan Walters had no business running an agency. He doesn’t know how.”
Burke agreed. He said the cost to the state won’t just come from the lawsuits, but due to Walters “hiring companies to promote this own personal agenda that had nothing to do with running public schools, and hiring political operatives that did nothing but advise him on political agendas – both of which had nothing to do with the Oklahoma public school system.”
Burke pointed to the thousands of dollars in attorney fees the state had to pay in the lawsuit with Oklahoma City television station KFOR as an example. In September 2024, KFOR and the Institute for Free Speech jointly filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to be allowed to cover the public state school board meetings and press briefings. It was granted less than two weeks later and KFOR won its case in December 2024.
And the future? For legal experts like Burke, Walters’ tenure as superintendent served as a lesson about who to elect to public office.
“I think what we’ve learned is that, in the future, Oklahomans should elect a school superintendent who is not interested in pushing a personal political agenda but instead has a plan to improve the public education in the state,” he said. “We’ve learned a hard lesson. Don’t elect someone who doesn’t have a plan. Don’t elect someone who just shouts things to the masses. Don’t elected someone who doesn’t have a meaty plan to improve our kids’ education.”