Education Dept. staff teaching in Tulsa
16 state employees serve as substitutes in district
Sixteen employees from the Oklahoma State Department of Education are, indeed, serving as substitute teachers in the Tulsa Public Schools district, records obtained by The Oklahoman show.
The employees are part of a project launched by state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters to help Tulsa school officials temporarily fill several gaps at the district’s schools. The employees from the state Education Department are teaching at schools across the district. District officials said they had about three weeks to prepare for the group, including training and background checks.
Records received by The Oklahoman on Wednesday list the name of each employee, where the employees are stationed and the days the employee is there. Thirteen of the state Education Department employees are positioned at elementary schools; three others are at high schools.
Several groups raised questions about the program this week after Oklahoma City television station KFOR broadcast a report that the federal Department of Education had implemented a “limited investigation” of the OSDE because some of the employees sent to Tulsa were paid by federal funds.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education denied it was investigating the Oklahoma agency. In a statement sent to The Oklahoman, the department said what was characterized in the KFOR report as an investigation was simply routine monitoring.
“The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs is not investigating the Oklahoma Department of Education for misuse of federal grant money,” a federal agency spokesperson said. “Earlier this year, the Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education conducted a regular consolidated monitoring for the Oklahoma Department of Education. The OESE is currently working to finalize its report and will be communicating monitoring results directly to ODE.”
Turmoil has swirled around the state agency since January 2023, when Walters became state superintendent. Walters’ actions while he served as the state’s education secretary — before he was elected as superintendent — also have been scrutinized.
Critics of Walters say he has used the state Education Department’s accreditation responsibility as a weapon since becoming superintendent, threatening to reduce — or remove — the accreditation of districts that have drawn his ire, including Tulsa, Western Heights and Edmond. He’s been especially hard on Tulsa Public Schools, requiring top-level officials from that district to make lengthy presentations each month at State Board of Education meetings.
Dan Isett, the spokesman for the state Education Department, and Walters posted messages on X — formerly Twitter — saying the “OSDE employees participating in the program will be paid from state funds for their time.”