Legislature subpoenas State Superintendent over unanswered budget questions
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - State Superintendent Ryan Walters has been subpoenaed by House leaders after their questions involving the Oklahoma State Department of Education remained unanswered.
Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, says legislators have sent numerous requests for information from OSDE and are being ignored.
The House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education has requested more information from Walters and OSDE on out-of-state teacher recruitment and school districts’ grade-level performance, an update to the $2 million Metrics Software purchase for data management and analytics, and all emails sent to Ryan Walters’ Every Kid Counts email address.
The original request was sent Nov. 15. A deadline of Nov. 27 was set for the recruitment and Metrics requests. Nov. 30 was the deadline for Walters’ emails.
A follow-up inquiry was sent to Walters on Dec. 6.
In response to these requests, Senior Advisor Matt Langston sent just two sentences.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Matt Langston, Oklahoma State Department of Education
Now, McBride - along with Speaker of the House Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and House Committee on Common Education Chair Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon - have formally subpoenaed Walters in order to receive the answers they seek.
As the branch of government charged with appropriations and oversight, the Legislature has a responsibility to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being spent properly by the agencies and departments under its purview. Myself, and many of my legislative colleagues, have repeatedly tried to communicate with the superintendent and his staff about these important issues. With the amount of tax dollars being spent by the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), legislative oversight of this spending is crucial. We have tried to work with the Superintendent, like we do with all state agencies, but have been met with a lack of transparency and increasingly unprofessional conduct. As Chairman of the Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee, I am constitutionally bound to ask questions, and statutorily entitled to have them answered, of the leadership of the legislatively appropriated OSDE. As those questions have not been answered, and no voluntary answer is forthcoming, I have exercised my power as Chairman to subpoena the superintendent to produce the records and communications requested by the committee. Where taxpayer money is concerned we must be diligent. The time for playing political games is over, and the time for answers is at hand. My focus is, and always will be, doing what is best for the children of Oklahoma, and the only way we can do that as a Legislature is to get basic questions answered properly. I look forward to reviewing the subpoenaed documents, and their timely delivery to my office.
Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore
Matt Langston issued the following statement in response:
Representative McBride has repeatedly lied about Superintendent Walters and the State
Matt Langston, Oklahoma State Department of Education
Department of Education. He has made up false narratives and has yet to show a serious effort
to improve education in Oklahoma. All Oklahomans should question his political and ideological
stances. Representative McBride actively works with Democrats and teachers unions to
undermine Superintendent Walters' and Oklahomans' conservative policies.
Walters has 14 days to complete the request.