A report reviewing five segments of Oklahoma State Department of Education funding released by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency this morning found concerns about communication with public school districts but “did not observe any activities” that “warranted referral to law enforcement entities for criminal investigation.”
The 56-page report, created over the last two months after legislators heard complaints from some school superintendents about delayed and mistaken notices about federal funding, included a handful of recommendations on establishing additional policies and procedures and improving communication with districts.
While much of the two-hour House LOFT Oversight Committee meeting involved statements, questions and answers about bureaucratic processes, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters used his initial remarks to criticize journalists and remind people that LOFT had recently completed a separate review of OSDE federal funding in June.
“It’s really unfortunate we are here today. This is a waste of time for the people of the state of Oklahoma. We have been transparent in everything we do,” Walters said. “It’s unfortunate that lies perpetuated by the media, by the teachers union and some bad actors have us here again today.”
The LOFT inquiry examined five segments of education dollars:
- Federal title funds;
- Pay raises for teachers at off-formula schools;
- Money for paid maternity leave;
- School resource officer funding; and
- An appropriation designated for inhalers at schools.
Each of the five topics had drawn controversy and confusion in recent months, and four of the five involve new funding priorities approved by the Legislature since 2022. Despite Walters’ criticisms, the federal title funds portion of the report (linked below) drew the day’s deepest discussion, with LOFT analysts painting a picture of the inter-agency confusion that has been reported by some former OSDE employees and criticized by some school leaders.
Specifically, the report examined claims that OSDE had been unusually delayed in reporting federal funding numbers to school districts to start the 2024-2025 school year.
“SDE employees were unaware that the prior administration had given districts early notice of allocation figures (preliminary allocations) in prior years. The agency was overconfident in their belief that these communications had never occurred, and consequently they dismissed legitimate complaints from districts,” the report states. “When final allocations were delayed this year, it presented a bigger problem than SDE realized: whereas SDE thought the figures were delayed by a few weeks, for districts, it represented a delay of several months. Although federal law protects districts from large reductions in Title funds, districts were understandably upset by the delays. Late or nonexistent communication was also an issue: after publishing districts’ final allocations, SDE zeroed out Title funding amounts without notifying districts there had been an error in the calculations, and only communicated the error after the reduced amounts were again visible to districts.”
Walters, however, pushed back on the critique, saying districts benefit from a provision guaranteeing at least 85 percent of a prior year’s federal funding and arguing that this year’s timeline was not wildly inconsistent with prior years. The claim was corroborated by a chart and explanation on Page 14 of the LOFT report.
During the meeting, Walters said the federal government had provided the inaccurate chart that triggered the six-day absence of data described above.
After the meeting, Walters continued to deride Tuesday’s discussion, term-limited House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee Chairman Mark McBride (R-Moore) and term-limited House Speaker Charles McCall (R-Atoka).
“We will not be deterred by these type of impeachment efforts from Speaker McCall,” Walters said, referencing public calls for a House impeachment process that McCall has declined to pursue. “We’re still reviewing the recommendations from LOFT, but listen, here’s what you saw today. We have executed on the legislative mandates given to us. We have held taxpayer dollars accountable. We have brought more accountability to the dollars going in your schools. We just went through a whole hearing where we highlighted how much more accountability we brought to the taxpayers of Oklahoma.
“It is absurd that Mark McBride and Charles McCall wasted Oklahomans’ time today with a pure political stunt trying to damage me by undermining the will of Oklahomans.”
In a statement, McCall said he appreciated LOFT’s “through investigation” and “comprehensive report.”
“The process played out exactly how it should, and LOFT has provided guidance to SDE, and the state superintendent, that should help increase communication between the department, the Legislature and school districts throughout our state. I hope that all involved parties will accept the results of this report and use the recommended guidance as a way to strengthen the lines of communication moving forward,” McCall said. “Government is structured with checks and balances to hold elected officials accountable and ensure the will of the people is being done. No one person, or agency, is above that scrutiny and the Legislature will always exercise their constitutional authority when necessary.
“The people of Oklahoma deserve a State Department of Education, and Legislature, that can work together to tackle tough issues. It is my hope that the LOFT process has laid the foundation for cooperation both now, and in the future.”
Walters has clashed with McBride and McCall before, accusing McCall of trying to undermine him as a precursor to a 2026 gubernatorial matchup in a Republican primary. McCall did not attend Tuesday’s committee meeting, but McBride did. However, the outspoken Republican who helped seal the historic 2018 revenue raising agreement and teacher pay raise asked no questions and made no statements in what could be his final public meeting as a legislator.
After the meeting, McBride spoke in the hallway with Matt Langston, the controversial Texas-based political consultant whose contract with OSDE McBride has questioned for more than a year. Asked if they had “made up,” Langston said he and McBride have a good relationship. McBride said their history of mutual criticism has been “part of the game.”
While Walters said Tuesday’s meeting was a waste of time, he declined to answer whether he felt similarly about his recent appearance in front of the state’s multi-county grand jury, a state investigative body that issued a report highly critical of Walters’ “grossly negligent” handling of federal pandemic-relief dollars. (Like the LOFT report, however, the grand jury report alleged no criminal behavior by the superintendent.)
“Hey look, I’m here today to talk about this,” Walters said before walking off.
‘We can’t make them open emails’
In all, Tuesday’s meeting left some lawmakers, legislative staffers and observers wondering what they had watched for two hours. The hearing offered the embattled superintendent a chance to go on offense, telling vague anecdotes about districts’ inappropriate federal funding claims that OSDE has rejected under his watch and tying a 32 percent school district response rate for LOFT’s questionnaire to the communication problem he argued is not his fault.
“This survey suggests the overwhelming majority of districts have no issues communicating with the State Department of Education,” Walters said during the meeting. “We can’t make them open emails. We can’t make them attend Zooms.”
Noting that he was likely asking his final questions as a legislator, term-limited House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols (R-OKC) supported Walters’ position on the inhaler funding brouhaha that recently yielded a letter of advice from Attorney General Gentner Drummond, another likely 2026 Republican gubernatorial hopeful. OSDE’s attorneys have said legislative direction to approve a $250,000 sole-source contract for a nonprofit to distribute inhalers violated state statute, and Echols argued it also violates the Oklahoma Constitution.
“The argument against pre-payment is not statutory, it is constitutional,” said Echols, himself an expected 2026 Republican candidate for attorney general.
Echols then asked Walters about an allegation he made twice Tuesday that a school district superintendent had applied for federal funds to renovate a four-plex housing unit near school grounds that the superintendent personally owned.
Walters told Echols he would be “happy to give you the full list” of problematic federal funding requests denied by his agency.
“The claim comes in that there’s going to be renovation, and it’s not documented very well,” Walters said of the situation he had highlighted. “Then as our team dug in through the process, that’s when we were able to uncover that the superintendent actually owned that four-plex.”
Despite the LOFT report’s strongest criticism involving OSDE’s communication with school districts, Rep. Melissa Provenzano (D-Tulsa) and Rep. Meloyde Blancett (D-Tulsa) released statements highlighting some of Walters’ comments Tuesday.
“The continued lack of accountability from the Oklahoma State Department of Education further emphasizes the state superintendent’s willful negligence. This puts our school districts and our kids squarely in second place to his own self interest,” Provenzano said. “We have a state agency head unwilling to commit to improving service to schools. We have a state agency head unwilling to share how he plans to spend unused payroll dollars. The repeated calls by the public to, ‘Do something about Supt. Ryan Walters,’ continue to go unanswered.”
Blancett pointed to a comment Walters made about having a priority to “shrink” government.
“The state superintendent says the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s objective is to ‘shrink government,’ but the objective should be establishing OSDE’s ability to effectively manage a multi-million-dollar state agency for a functional education system,” Blancett said. “I come from a business background, and if you had a CEO whose chief (of) staff could not communicate effectively either internally or externally with primary stakeholders, they would be fired. My question is if OSDE is unable to effectively create a functional working relationship with school districts and the Legislature, how can we possibly expect success to happen in schools for our kids? We need leadership at OSDE who have the capability and humility to take a step back and be willing to partner with the Legislature to improve this system. If there is an inability for OSDE to acknowledge they can do better, that is a serious issue.”
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LOFT Oversight Committee Co-Chairman Kevin Wallace, who is exiting the House owing to a surprising defeat after six years as chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, concluded what could be his final meeting with a reminder to Walters that the Legislature has a right to check how public money is being used.
“I know that a comment was made that (this was) ‘a waste of time here today,’” said Wallace (R-Wellston). “I do think good information came out of the presentation today. I think [people are] better informed, better educated. I always like to be educated myself. Transparency is always good.”
House Appropriations and Budget Committee Vice Chairman Trey Caldwell, who is expected to succeed Wallace as his chamber’s budget chairman, said Tuesday’s conversation and report are “a perfect example of why we need an agency like LOFT to come and do an impartial review of the facts.”
“I think anytime we can have data and facts, then we can make that public and people can understand and see,” Caldwell (R-Lawton) said after the meeting. “My biggest takeaway was there probably is a level of noncompatibility in the communication between the state superintendent and the school districts in the state. I think that’s something that could probably be improved upon. My biggest concern going into it was some of the rumors of stuff we’d heard around Title I funding. I think all those fears have been allayed on my end. I think they have a legitimate process set in place to make sure those taxpayer dollars are well managed and well taken care of.”
Read the Oct. 29 LOFT report on OSDE funds
