State Superintendent Ryan Walters addresses 'critical issue' impacting Oklahoma

State Superintendent Ryan Walters is discussing recent developments involving the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Walters joined the News 9 team Friday morning ahead of a press conference scheduled for 9:45 a.m.

Watch the press conference below:

Q: The Choctaw-Nicoma Park lawsuit is big news. How do we hold school districts accountable? 

RELATED: Former Choctaw-Nicoma Park student seeks damages following teacher-student relationship

A: Let me tell you, we're not going to tolerate the behavior like you just saw right there. What we've done is we've started suspending teachers' licenses for life. We're the first state in the country to do that. We're not going to let these teachers come back. We're also going to hold these administrators and districts accountable for passing the trash and passing the buck. They have to be responsible when you have young people who come forward with allegations. When you have, and we get this a lot, other teachers come forward and go, "Hey, there are red flags here," districts have to act, they don't. They don't see these investigations all the way through. They let people resign, and we see this time and time again, they pop up somewhere else, hurt other kids. This is unacceptable. We are ending this practice of passing the trash in Oklahoma. The teacher will be held accountable. We will make sure that we work with law enforcement, so that they are investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Also those that harbor them, those that don't turn over the investigations, we will come after their certificates too, and we'll get them out of the classrooms as well. 

SEE ALSO: OSDE issues multiple lifetime teaching bans for former educators

Q: You're not surprised by these lawsuits?

A: Absolutely not. We've seen this multiple times across the state, frankly. You know, parents absolutely should be outraged. They absolutely should be holding districts accountable. So it does not surprise me. We've been fighting this for three years. We've gotten over 140 investigations ongoing. We've got 7 of these lifetime bans in place, but we're going to continue to make sure practice is in place to remove these predators from the classroom. I'm going to tell you, administrators, you have got to keep your hallways safe, keep your classroom safe. No parent should ever have to come home and hear that something like that happened to their kids. 

Q: After this interview, you're going to the Capitol to inform Oklahomans about what you call a very critical issue impacting our state. What is this?

A: I'm going to wait till 9:45 a.m. and make that announcement there, but I want to tell you I've heard from Oklahomans all over the state. We're going to be addressing an issue that's very important to them. Again, what we've got to continue to do is make sure that Oklahomans are front and mind of everything that we're doing as state officials, as elected officials. So we're going to be addressing that. I'm always gonna speak on behalf of Oklahomans. I'm always gonna fight for our parents. I'm always gonna fight for our taxpayers. So you're always going to continue to see me fight for those individuals, no matter what the political cost is.

Q: Is this about the Bibles? The lawmakers have said we're not going to fund Bibles in the classroom. Is that what this is about? 

A: I'll address that here in a few minutes, but again, I'm going to always listen to the people of Oklahoma. I'm always going to fight for taxpayers. I'm always going to fight for the parents and grandparents. We should have the best state in the country. There's no reason that we should not be the best state for folks to move to. For folks to live in, to raise a family in, and we've got to continue to do better. So, I'll be addressing some of those issues here shortly. 

Q: Some of the administrative rules that you want passed were struck down by lawmakers. Does this announcement today have anything to do with that?

A: First of all, I will say the Senate, the Senate rejected a couple of those things. It still moves on to the House. I still am optimistic that the House will do the right thing and make sure that taxpayers understand how much of their taxpayer dollars are going to pay for illegal immigrants' education. This is common sense. So when you see legislators. So we're not going to do that when you hear the governor. We're not going to do that. Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent. We have a very simple cost accounting rule. I think every Oklahoman right now should know how much of their taxpayer dollars you hear about fund education all the time, right? Well, how much of those dollars are going to pay for illegal immigrants? Everyone has a right to know that information; we should be about transparency and accountability, and I'm going to continue to fight for that, unapologetically. 

Q: Would you call that a critical issue for the State of Oklahoma? 

A: I think it is a critical issue for the state of Oklahoma. Listen, we've got a lawsuit going in federal court right now. We sued the Biden administration for hundreds of millions of dollars. That's the minimum that we know that we're owed. The Biden administration failed miserably, allowed illegal immigrants into the state. They admitted that they should have done something about it, and we go well, you know how much that cost Oklahoma taxpayers? Hundreds of millions of dollars. At a minimum, we're fighting that out in court, but we need to see. Everybody should know how much this is impacting Oklahomans, how much it is impacting your taxpayer dollars. Again, President Trump has done a tremendous job. We follow all of his executive orders. We're always the first state and education to do that, but what we've got to continue to do is account for how much funding is going towards illegal immigration, and how do we continue to make sure taxpayer dollars are protected?

Q: Do you think illegal immigration is the biggest topic facing education in our state? 

A: I think it's one of the biggest. You know, when you talk about the cost there, it's huge. But you also talk about the disruptions, and we're going to talk about this a little bit more. As we continue to move forward, we hear from districts all over the state that go, “Over a weekend, we may have hundreds of students move in, speak all kinds of different languages,” and then we make adjustments, we move. Class sizes get a lot larger, we've moved teachers, assistants, and then in three weeks, they're gone. Again, with these migrants that come in, it's very mobile. They move very quickly, and so districts are saying we're trying to account for them. We're trying to account for funds, resources, and personnel, but it has caused all kinds of disruption in our schools, which makes it very tough when you're trying, and we introduced the largest tutoring program in state history. We've introduced the largest literacy program in state history, but when you continue to see these issues with illegal immigration over the last four years, it really caused a lot of havoc in summer school. 

Q: What can you do if lawmakers are not on your side? What do you want to see change? What's your desired outcome? 

A: We'll continue to look at all options here to make sure that taxpayers know how their dollars are being spent in education. We've asked the legislature for this rule, and if they don't approve it, we'll find ways to make sure the right thing is being done, but I will unapologetically fight for the taxpayers of Oklahoma to say we're going to show you how your dollars are spent. We're going to continue to fight for that. We're going to continue to fight to and uphold President Trump's vision for education, and vision for our country. A big part of that is getting illegal immigration under control. So no matter what the legislature does, I will always fight for local taxpayers. We'll continue to move forward. 

Q: Your $3,000,000 request was left out of the budget for bibles. Where do you stand on that? 

A: We're going to have Bibles in the classroom now. I've got a lot of options that we're looking at right now. We've gotten donations from all over the country to get Bibles back in the classroom. It is essential that our kids understand the role the Bible played in American history, period. There's no more read book in American history than the Bible. There's no more sided book by the founders and influential people throughout our country's history than the Bible. We have to have it in the classroom. Our new standards mention the Bible or Jesus over 30 times. Kids need to have the Bible accessible to them so they can study it in its historical context. We have been clear from day one that we're going to be the first state to do that, so that will be done. If the legislature doesn't fund it, I've already started all these other avenues in order to do that, but we will have the Bible back in the classroom, and our kids are not going to be told a left-wing view of history that's secular and atheist. They're going to be told, "What did Martin Luther King Jr. say? What did the pilgrims say? What did George Washington say?” We're not going to sugarcoat history because the left wants their perspective and their perspective only. 

Q: What do you say when we ask you, are you running for governor of the State of Oklahoma? 

A: What I would say is I get that question a lot. Wherever I go, folks ask me, folks encourage me to run, but that's a question I'm going to deal with this summer. It's something I'm going to think about and consider, but right now I'm really trying to ensure that we have the best legislative session, we have the best school year. Again, we have a lot of schools that still have about two weeks left. We've really been working on getting test scores up. We've really been working on making sure that kids get put into the right summer school programs as well. If your kids struggle in reading or struggle in math, we want to make sure that they have opportunities over the summer to catch up, and we want to continue our record-breaking teacher recruitment. We have a new teacher signing bonus out this summer, so those have been really my focus. But look, I'll take a look this summer, and again, get back to a lot of folks that have been pushing me to do that, we'll give them some answers this summer. 

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Below is a full video of the emergency news conference during which Superintendent Walters called out the legislature and other state leaders for not passing an income tax cut and for decisions made regarding the state budget.