Hamilton: McCall's strange case of the 48-hour rollover against Walters

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But sometimes things happen in politics that make you think. Take, for example, the about-face by Speaker of the House Charles McCall last week regarding the investigation into State Inspector Ryan Walters.

As you'll recall, the Speaker rebuffed a growing number of Republicans who were publicly urging him to initiate impeachment proceedings. But two days later, McCall summarily authorized the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) to investigate Walters' potential mismanagement.

What has changed in 48 hours?

The fact that more Republicans have signed the impeachment petition, and many of them have no doubt received calls from constituents dismayed by the state superintendent of schools' incessant attacks on their local school superintendents and teachers?

Or did McCall, who was serving under term limits, perhaps realize that his original decision was a colossal political mistake that threatened to end his years as speaker on a sour note and perhaps even dash his dreams of future office?

Or that the Capitol bureaucrats were somehow forewarned by a damning 98-page report that the U.S. Department of Education was about to drop a bomb? Walters' department was held accountable for its handling of some $2.7 billion in federal funds.

Fascinating, yes. Perhaps even entertaining, like a guilty pleasure, when an angry Walters practically called on the House of Representatives to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against him.

Beyond the theatrics, conversations about Walter's chaotic tenure as superintendent all too often lack the real impact on Oklahoma's schools, students, teachers and staff.

The fall semester has begun, and Oklahoma schools are still not sure how much money they will have available, which is a problem when trying to fill teaching positions with qualified staff.

Teachers in districts where school type is not defined at the state level are still waiting for legally mandated pay raises. Funds for improved school safety, life-saving asthma inhalers and paid maternity leave have not been paid out as promised.

This is likely just the tip of the iceberg of the consequences of mismanagement that could further shake Oklahoma's public school system.

While Oklahoma isn't the only state to receive poor marks from the feds, taxpayers should be outraged that a Walters-led State Department failed to properly account for billions of dollars in at least 32 of 52 categories.

Although the report is dated July 25, the review was conducted in December of last year, nearly a year after Walters took office, during which hundreds of agency employees jumped ship, taking their expertise and experience with them. Cause and effect?

School districts are mired in uncertainty and plagued by criticism from the state superintendent. It's a toxic stew that threatens to leave behind a generation of Covid-era students, meaning Oklahoma won't produce the minds necessary to compete, let alone excel, in the 21st century.^st Economy of the century.

It is not a conspiracy theory that public education has been under attack for 70 years by well-funded special interests and religious zealots whose goal is to replace “public schools” with for-profit and/or “Christian” schools. The Heritage Foundation's 2025 Project describes the strategy for remaking America in detail. Walters is dedicated to this plan.

“Most Americans cannot understand an education policy that actively undermines and destroys the public education system,” writes Andrew L. Seidel, author, lawyer and vice president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“But that has been a conservative goal since public school desegregation was overturned in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education… The ultimate goal is to channel students and public funds (via vouchers or other programs) to private Christian schools that can teach religion and turn away students who do not fit into the 'biblically based' family,” as Project 2025 describes it.

Oklahoma's public schools are facing a powerful, un-American, right-wing tornado. The sirens are blaring. The potential carnage cannot wait until a lengthy LOFT investigation is complete. Now is the time to act.

Arnold Hamilton is editor of the Oklahoma Observer; okobserver.org.