(The Center Square) - House Democrats want a special bipartisan committee to investigate Oklahoma Superintendent of Instruction Ryan Walters.
Members of the House Democratic Caucus said Friday that Walters' actions may warrant impeachment.
"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," said Rep. Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City. "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."
Democrats asked House Speaker Charles McCall for an investigative committee in August. McCall denied their request.
"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?"
Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said she will file legislation requiring the Department of Education to submit a quarterly financial report to the Legislature.
"The total lack of transparency is ongoing and alarming,” Provenzano said.
Matt Langston senior advisor to Walters, said in a statement to The Center Square: "Oklahoma democrats embody the temperament of a 5-year-old spoiled brat. Temper tantrums and political assassination are their only tricks left. Oklahomans elected Walters with historic margins because they know he will never back down and he will never stop fighting the radicalism that the left pushes."
via Oklahoma's Center Square News