Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters on Wednesday announced he will be stepping down from his role to take a job in the private sector. 

Walters, a Republican accused by critics of stirring intra-party “political drama” amid his push to enact a conservative agenda in schools, announced during a Fox News interview that he is headed to a new job as CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance. The organization has touted itself as “an alternative to union membership” for teachers, which a Democratic representative accused Walters of illegally using state resources to promote earlier this year.

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“We’re going to destroy the teachers’ unions,” Walters told Fox News host Trace Gallagher. “We have seen the teachers’ unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools. We are one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the country. We will build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers’ union once and for all. So this fight’s going national and we will get our schools back on track. We will not allow any further union control.”

Attorney General Gentner Drummond celebrated Walters’ departure this week. The state’s top prosecutor slammed Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) for appointing Walters to become Secretary of Public Education in 2020, which fueled his successful run for office in 2022 to become the state’s superintendent. 

Drummond referenced a slew of controversies surrounding Walters, including Oklahoma sinking to the bottom of education ratings across the 50 states during his tenure. 

“From the mishandling of pandemic relief funds that resulted in families buying Xboxes and refrigerators to the latest squabbling with board members over what was or wasn’t showing on TV, the Stitt-Walters era has been an embarrassment to our state,” Drummond said, in a reference to an investigation from the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office over allegations that inappropriate images were displayed on a television during a State Board of Education meeting. 

The investigation concluded over the fall with the determination that the television accidentally began playing a movie with explicit content. Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson stated the incident was “purely an accident.”

Walters is well-known for his fiery conservative leanings in the state, some of which have provoked debate that he is blurring the lines between the separation of church and state.  

One such incident occurred in January, when Walters pushed a multi-million dollar effort to put more Bibles in classrooms, including ones branded by President Donald Trump. 

He also led the effort, which eventually made it to the Supreme Court, to have public funding go toward a Catholic charter school. The high court upheld a lower court ruling that denied the Catholic school funding.

Over the summer, Walters raised eyebrows after announcing Oklahoma would be the first state to require teachers from liberal-leaning states to take a test to show they align with Oklahoma’s curriculum standards. Walters said he was working with conservative think tank PragerU to develop an “America First” test including questions about American history, civics, and “common sense.” 

After GOP activist Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated earlier this month, Walters announced plans to put TPUSA chapters in every high school in the state, saying it would counter “radical leftist teachers unions” and their “woke indoctrination”.

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“We have seen the outpouring from parents, teachers and students that want to be engaged with the meaningful work going on at Turning Point. They want their young people to be engaged in a process that understands free speech, open engagement, dialogue about American greatness, a dialogue around American values,” Walters said in a video statement. “What we’re going to continue to do is make sure our kids understand American greatness, engage in civic dialogue and have that open discussion,” he continued. 

Walters appeared to be snubbed by the Trump administration in August when Education Secretary Linda McMahon traveled to Oklahoma. McMahon and her team specifically asked Oklahoma officials not to include Walters on the trip, fearing his presence would be a distraction, according to a NOTUS report. A spokesman later said Walters had been out of state.