TULSA, Okla. — Transparency has been an issue at the Oklahoma State Department of Education since Superintendent Ryan Walters took the helm. More recently, the lack of unfulfilled open records has gotten the attention of Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
Questions over lack of transparency led to a legislative subpoena in December of 2023.
“We have seen time and time again that Superintendent Walters uses taxpayer dollars to promote and elevate his status and his posturing on the national level,” said Representative Mickey Dollens in 2023.
2 News had already been hearing of travel and spending concerns from parents at board meetings prior to the subpoena.
Here is an example of the difficulty of even a minute request:
In July of 2023, 2 News Anchor Erin Christy emailed Senior Policy Advisor Matt Langston for a schedule of August speaking engagements in order to stay on top of any pending travel.
The request was denied, forcing a more formal, Open Records Request. In the ORR, the request expanded to August and September, asking for any scheduled press or non-press events, town halls or conferences, in- or out-of-state.
This is information that, upon request, typically gets answered to a journalist without a lot of fuss. In this case, it took 14 months, was incomplete and inaccurate.
August’s calendar did include speaking at a tax assessor’s conference and several press interviews. However, he also spoke to the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, at a press conference in Tulsa and to other press, which were not indicated in the records given.
For the month of September, we received zero records. However, he spoke at a conservative summit in Washington, D.C., appeared on FOX News (in a post on X, it appears to show Walters in the Fox Studios in Washington, D.C.) and testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee during a hearing.
We emailed Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office because, in July, Drummond demanded he comply with the Open Records Act. He had received numerous complaints about unfilled requests.
In a statement, the AG’s office said,
“The response has been very disappointing. Attorney General Drummond firmly believes government accountability and transparency are of the utmost importance. Adherence to the Open Meeting and Open Records Acts are fundamental to ensuring such transparency.
Our public access counselor continues to receive complaints about ORRs not being filled by that agency.
Our public access counselor continues to be in written correspondence with OSDE about complaints received by this office.”
2 News emailed Walters’ spokesperson requesting a response as to why the records were incomplete and did not hear back.
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