Ryan Walters sure kicked off Teacher Appreciation Week in his own special way.
“I don’t negotiate with the teachers union. They’re a terrorist organization,” told a room full of people to immediate and reverberating rebuke.
Unapologetic, he doubled down on the sentiment, “I don’t negotiate with folks who would sabotage our kids. That’s a terrorist organization in my book.”
Beyond antagonism, Walters is also using his position to sabotage public education in this state, a whistleblower has since revealed.
Terri Grissom, the former director of grant development at the Oklahoma State Department of Education who resigned last month, told the Tulsa World, “The new leadership team is not moving on anything. They won’t approve anything. They won’t sign contracts. No work is actually happening. When work shuts down, everything is in jeopardy.”
Walters also said that he has already applied for a multimillion dollar grant … but that application window doesn’t even open until next year, Grissom said.
“The public has a right to know about his lies. If he’s going to lie about federal grants, he’s going to lie about anything,” she told the Tulsa World.
This didn’t happen in a vacuum. Walters beat out Jena Nelson by more than 150,000 votes in November, so this is all happening at the behest of a majority of voters.
Now that his first six months in office are up, Republicans can’t claim “buyer’s remorse.” They got exactly who they voted for and should not be permitted to forget it.
