House Democrats renew call to investigate State Supt. Walters for impeachment

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The House Democratic Caucus has renewed their call for the Speaker of the House to investigate the possible impeachment of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters.

“While the Speaker has refused to act on our previous request to create a special bipartisan committee to investigate the State Superintendent, the situation has worsened,” said Representative Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City. “Financial mismanagement and the inability to access information to do their jobs has caused essential employees and cabinet-level officials to resign, taxpayer dollars may have been used for campaigning, and Superintendent Walters has vowed to dismantle the very agencies that help fund our public schools. Not to mention it has been reported that over 100 school districts have yet to receive final approval from OSDE on federal program funding, and jobs in our schools hang in the balance. This is clearly willful neglect of duty and incompetency – both grounds for impeachment. The time to act is now.”

On August 29, the House Democratic Caucus sent a letter requesting the Speaker create a special bipartisan House committee, the request was denied.

“Where have all these dollars gone? The total lack of transparency is ongoing and alarming,” said Representative Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa. “As a former school administrator, I know that the public deserves every taxpayer dollar to be accounted for when it comes to our public schools. Next session I will file legislation to require the State Department of Education to submit quarterly reports to the legislature detailing all spending made with state and federal dollars, along with the rationale for those expenditures. We must act now, though, to investigate the possible violations made by State Superintendent Walters. The longer we wait, the worse it gets.”

“I have so many concerns about what is happening at the State Department of Education right now,” said Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater. “Who is tracking the funding and expenditures? Who is making sure our districts get the funding owed to them? Who has oversight of the agency without a Secretary of Education? We must have answers to these questions and a bipartisan committee is the way to get those answers.”