House education subcommittee reviews subpoena response from Supt. Walters

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - After receiving a response to the subpoena served to State Superintendent Ryan Walters over unanswered questions from Oklahoma House leaders, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education is now reviewing his answers.

Chair of the subcommittee, Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, says the questions 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, were initially posed Nov. 15.

After numerous requests for answers were ignored or met with 'sarcasm and disrespect,' a formal subpoena was issued Dec. 19. Walters replied to the subpoena Dec. 26.

McBride said he immediately began reviewing the material provided.

I appreciate Supt. Walters’ quick compliance with the subpoena, and I have begun reviewing the delivered documents to ensure that they contain all of the information that was requested. As Chairman of the Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee, I exercised my power to subpoena the superintendent to produce these records, but I wish it would not have had to come to that. My focus has always been, and will continue to be, doing what is best for Oklahoma students. It is my hope that moving forward, the extreme, but sometimes necessary, process of using a subpoena will not be needed, and the superintendent will more openly and willingly communicate with members of the Legislature. The Legislative Branch is constitutionally charged with oversight of the budgets of certain departments, including the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE). Additionally, our responsibility as elected officials is to work together for the betterment of our state, not continuously fight to earn political clout or obfuscate the process of government. I will continue to review the subpoenaed documents with the hope that they fully answer the committee’s questions and give us a more complete understanding of the processes and procedures of the OSDE under Supt. Walters’ leadership. I thank him again for his swift compliance, and hope for a less adversarial working relationship in the future.

Representative Mark McBride, R-Moore

As the subcommittee continues to review the answers, a portion of those findings have been revealed.

In the file below, Walters' answers are written in red and the House findings are written in blue.

It is unclear how long the full review will take to complete.