McCall: Legislature could pass bill to limit Walters' spending on travel, PR

Oklahoma’s House Speaker says he is looking to write a bill to limit State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ ability to continue spending thousands in taxpayer dollars on services to help grow his national political profile.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma’s House Speaker says he is looking to write a bill to limit State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ ability to continue spending thousands in taxpayer dollars on services to help grow his national political profile.

Oklahoma Speaker of the House Charles McCall (R-Atoka) told reporters Monday he was surprised by recent reports that Walters spent $30k in taxpayer dollars to hire a Washington D.C.-based PR firm to book him on national talk shows.

Earlier this year, News 4 reported Walters spent thousands in Taxpayer dollars on travel expenses. That included expenses for attending a movie premiere and recording a podcast in Texas, attending a Moms for Liberty conference in Pennsylvania, and traveling to Washington D.C to meet with a guest-booker for Fox News.

“Education—everyone is a stakeholder in education,” McCall said to reporters on Monday. “We should not be expending state monies, taxpayer dollars, for personal promotion.”

At a news conference last week, Gov. Kevin Stitt told reporters he thinks criticism of Walters' spending habits is warranted.

“It’s a logical question people should have to answer,” Stitt said. “It’s a fair point to ask questions—every agency… that hires PR firms and those kind of things, it’s an honest question, is that a good use of the taxpayer dollars?”

On Monday, McCall told reporters he would look into crafting legislation to put limits on Walters and the Oklahoma State Depart of Education’s ability to spend money on travel and PR.

“I’m very surprised to hear monies would be used for that anywhere in state government,” McCall said. “I’m sure the House this cycle, we can certainly commit to a limits bill within the education budget to specifically prohibit that type of expenditure going forward.”

News 4 reached out top Walters’ office for comment in response to McCall’s idea.

Walters' office sent the following statement:

“Having saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating 11 full-time employees, I’m surprised that the Speaker is looking to increase inefficiencies.  We are spreading a strong message: recruiting new teachers, fighting back against woke indoctrination, and getting schools back to basics.  I wish the House would spend more time on these fights than believing lies by the liberal media.”

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters