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San Francisco Chronicle
20 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oklahoma authorities investigate reports of explicit images on state education chief's TV
An Oklahoma sheriff's office Monday opened an investigation over reports that images of nude women were displayed on the state's school superintendent office television during a meeting with education board members. Top Oklahoma lawmakers have sought answers over accounts given by two State Board of Education members, who said they saw the images during a meeting in Ryan Walters 's office Thursday. Another board member, Chris Van Denhende, said he was not in a position to see the television but that 'something was on the screen that should not have been,' based on Walters' reaction. The investigation is in the early stages, said Aaron Brilbeck, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office. He said it was not clear if any laws were violated. Walters, a Republican, has spent much of his first term in office lauding President Donald Trump, feuding with teachers unions and local school superintendents, and trying to end what he describes as 'wokeness' in public schools. Brilbeck said the sheriff's office was investigating at the request of the state's Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which handles technology, human resources and property management issues for state government. Education board members Becky Carson and Ryan Deatherage told the online news outlet NonDoc that they saw a video featuring naked women in Walters' office during the executive session. They said that they were the only people seated in places where they could see the screen. Carson said that when she asked Walters to turn it off he expressed confusion before doing so. Walters said in a post on the social platform X on Sunday that 'any suggestion that a device of mine was used to stream inappropriate content on the television set is categorically false.' 'I have no knowledge of what was on the TV screen during the alleged incident, and there is absolutely no truth to any implication of wrongdoing,' he wrote. Walters' office did not immediately reply to a request by The Associated Press for comment about the investigation on Monday. Van Denhende told the AP that he's fine with the sheriff's department investigating, though 'I'm not certain if it is a violation of law or state policy.' Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, a Republican, in a news release on Friday said it was 'a bizarre and troubling situation,' and that 'the accounts made public by board members paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency.'
NBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Sheriff's office launches probe after reports of naked women seen on official's TV at Oklahoma Board of Education meeting
A sheriff's office in Oklahoma is investigating an incident that occurred during a state Board of Education meeting last week that reportedly involved images of naked women on the state schools superintendent's office television. The images were seen during the board's executive session, held in Superintendent Ryan Walters' office, The Oklahoman reported, citing members Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson who attended the meeting. NBC News has not confirmed the accounts of Deatherage and Carson, who were both nominated by Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican. The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office launched a probe into the incident, according to Aaron Brilbeck, public information officer for the sheriff's office, after a request from the agency that oversees human resources matters for the state government. Senate Pro Temp Lonnie Paxton and state Sen. Adam Pugh, both Republicans, had said in a joint news release Friday that the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which oversees HR matters, was leading an inquiry into the incident and was working through proper channels to initiate an investigation. 'This is a bizarre and troubling situation that raises serious questions about the events and what took place during yesterday's executive session at the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting,' Paxton said in a statement about the Board of Education's meeting held on Thursday. Accounts shared by members of the Board of Education, he added, "paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency." The Office of Management and Enterprise Services didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A legislative assistant to House Common Education Committee Chairman Dick Lowe, Caitlin Kilpatrick, pointed NBC News to reporting by the news outlet NonDoc that said Lowe attended the board meeting. Lowe told the publication that while he did not see the video of the naked women, he discussed the matter with the two board members who did view the images. 'Shocked would be maybe an understatement a little bit. In the position that that person is in, that's absolutely without a question not appropriate by any means for any state official, much less that state official,' Lowe told NonDoc. Walters, a conservative Republican, has pushed for proposals to further integrate religion in schools, such as placing Bibles in them. He has also advocated for requiring students enrolled in state public schools to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. In a statement posted Sunday on X after the allegations surrounding the meeting, Walters denied any wrongdoing. "Any suggestion that a device of mine was used to stream inappropriate content on the television set is categorically false. I have no knowledge of what was on the TV screen during the alleged incident, and there is absolutely no truth to any implication of wrongdoing," Walters said. "These falsehoods are the desperate tactics of a broken establishment afraid of real change. They aren't just attacking me, they're attacking the values of the Oklahomans who elected me to challenge the status quo." NBC News reached out to Walters and his spokesman, as well as Deatherage, Carson and the four other members of the Oklahoma Board of Education, for comment. Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday that the Democratic Caucus has made six calls over the last two years requesting a special bipartisan committee to investigate Walters regarding other matters. "Before these recent allegations came out, he has shown multiple times throughout his leadership that he has no interest in bettering the public education system for students and teachers. He is mainly concerned with advancing his own political and religious agendas," she said. "These new allegations are serious and troubling, and while we wait for the investigation to be finished, I think it's prudent to acknowledge that there has been a dire need for change in leadership at the Oklahoma State Department of Education for a long time."
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oklahoma agencies publish private school tax credit recipients under transparency law
Evie Jenney teaches theology at Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Oklahoma City on May 20, 2024. The school is one of more than 200 participating in the Parental Choice Tax Credit. (Photo by Ted Streuli/Oklahoma Watch) Oklahoma officials have released the names of the thousands of taxpayers who received the new Parental Choice Tax Credit for tuition and expenses at private schools. After repeated requests by Oklahoma Watch dating back to December, the Oklahoma Tax Commission sent the tax credit recipient data to the state's open data website. The information is limited to just the name of the taxpayer and the amount of private school tax credits they received in 2024. It doesn't include school or student information. The tax credit program provides up to $7,500 annually per child for private school expenses. Lawmakers capped the overall cost of the program at $150 million in tax year 2024, but it rises to $250 million in tax year 2026. If they qualified, most taxpayers received half the credit early in the year and the other half later in the year. The total credit amount doesn't show how many children in a family received the private school tuition tax credit. The top recipient received more than $24,000 in tax credits in the second half of 2024, according to the data. The data is posted at the state's open data website, which is maintained by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. Oklahoma Watch requested private school tax credit data in December from the Tax Commission under the Oklahoma Open Records Act and the Oklahoma Taxpayer Transparency Act. Though most taxpayer data is confidential, recipients of tax credits are an exception under the taxpayer transparency law. Lawmakers passed that law in 2010 to address budget planning issues caused by transferable tax credits. Initially, the Tax Commission referred Oklahoma Watch's request to the state's open data website, which lacked the relevant data. Commission attorneys later determined the data could only be released through the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. Although the Tax Commission administers the program, it would not release the data directly. After a delay and agency miscommunication, the data was finally posted on the state's open data site on April 29. The Tax Commission last week released its latest snapshot of the recipients of the Parental Choice Tax Credit. It showed just 2,963 of the 36,921 students approved for the tax credit so far this year were enrolled in public school the previous semester. In setting up the program, lawmakers gave priority consideration to families making an adjusted gross income of less than $75,000. Proponents frequently referred to that group as 'low income,' even though the state's median household income is $63,600. About 2,700, or 9%, of the students in the program came from families that qualify for income-based public assistance programs, according to the data snapshot. More than 27,000 students receiving the private school tax credit – almost 75% – came from families with household incomes above $75,000, according to the latest Tax Commission data. Shiloh Kantz, executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said at a minimum, lawmakers should put additional accountability measures into the Parental Choice Tax Credit program. She said it would be helpful to know which private school the student attended and the local public school district. There should also be regular audits of the credit and the percentage of audits where errors were found. Those types of safeguards are built into state and federal programs like the earned-income tax credit, food stamps and Medicaid that benefit low-income families. 'We got told this program will uplift educational outcomes, that it offers families educational choice and opportunity through that choice,' Kantz said. 'But really it just rewards those people who can already afford private education, and it just leaves our public school students further behind, especially in a state where one in five kids live in poverty.' Kantz said few private schools are adding capacity to take additional students. Meanwhile, some schools have increased tuition since the tax credit was implemented. 'So it is not about having parental choice,' Kantz said. 'It is about checking a box as a political red state to say, 'We did the thing.' But it's not helping working Oklahomans.' The Legislature considered several changes to the program this year. Lawmakers didn't act on Senate Bill 229, by Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, this session. It would have eliminated the $250 million annual cap on the private school tax credit, a change Gov. Kevin Stitt called for at a rally at the Capitol in March celebrating the private school tax credit program. SB 684, by Senate Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, could come up for a vote in the House this week. It mostly deals with accreditation organizations for private schools participating in the Parental Choice Tax Credit. But it also prioritizes existing recipients if they still meet income eligibility requirements. This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Oklahoma Supreme Court pauses Ryan Walters' attempt to buy Bibles, Bible-infused curriculum
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has halted so-called 'request for proposals' for Bibles and Bible curriculum for Oklahoma classrooms, but has left open the question about the constitutionality of state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters' Bible-teaching mandate for state schools. The order, signed by Chief Justice Dustin Rowe, was issued Monday. In the past two weeks, there have been a flurry of filings in the lawsuit, which was originally filed Oct. 17. The lawsuit asked the court to halt Walters' mandate, issued in June, and bar Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education from spending $3 million in state money on Bibles. The agency is attempting a second 'request for proposals' seeking bidders to provide Bibles for classrooms. The original request was written in such a way that very few versions of the Bible — namely one endorsed by President Donald Trump — appear to meet all the standards specified. The state Office of Management and Enterprise Services, a defendant in the lawsuit, had asked the court to order it to stop working on processing two request for proposals, or RFPs, from the Oklahoma State Department of Education — one for the Bibles, a second for Bible-infused curriculum for elementary classrooms — until the court issues a final decision. The agency had told the plaintiffs it was legally obligated to proceed with processing the RFPs until a court directive ordering it to do otherwise is issued. Rowe's decision said a ruling on the plaintiff's request to enjoin Walters from 'taking any other action to implement or enforce the Bible Education Mandate is deferred to the decisional stage.' Walters' desire was to spend $3 million in money from the fiscal year that ended in June for Bibles — the current RFP — and $3 million from the current fiscal year for more Bibles. The Oklahoma Senate's education budget subcommittee didn't include the $3 million Walters requested for the current fiscal year in its recommendation for this year's state Education Department budget. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Supreme Court pauses Ryan Walters' attempt to buy Bibles
