Oklahoma schools push back on Ryan Walters’ plan to track illegal immigration costs

School administrators are increasingly voicing public opposition to Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ right-wing agenda.

A dozen school districts in Oklahoma said they will not check students’ immigration status if asked by the state’s education department, in the latest sign of growing resistance to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.

Walters announced last week at the monthly State Board of Education meeting that he planned to ask school administrators to assist his office by calculating “the cost and burden” of illegal immigration on their districts. “The federal government has failed to secure our border. Our schools are suffering over this,” he said. He did not elaborate on what districts will be asked to do but said the Oklahoma State Department of Education will issue guidance in the coming weeks.

“Oklahoma parents have demanded action to stop woke indoctrination in the classroom and I will continue to fight to get Oklahoma schools on a path to success,” Walters said in a statement to NBC News. “Districts refusing to comply will be held accountable.”

The immigration announcement is the latest in a series of controversial steps taken by Walters, a Republican who has spent his first year and a half in office focused on culture war issues — including issuing a June demand that public schools incorporate the Bible into their lessons.

School teachers and administrators had been slow to publicly challenge Walters, but the backlash is mounting.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oklahoma-ryan-walters-illegal-immigration-cost-rcna165749

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