In an article on the Boundless Reading site I examine in depth the history of the Catholic Church in Oklahoma’s support for Ryan Walters, the state’s highly controversial Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the article I show that Walters’ rise was cultivated and promoted by the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, beginning with offering him the nonprofit leadership through which he almost immediately oversaw the distribution of state COVID educational funds (a large percentage of which he then directed through a special—and arguably unethical—arrangement to Catholic schools). I also discuss how the Conference and the Catholic then-Attorney General used a now-rescinded legal opinion to open the door for the Conference’s proposal for the publicly-funded St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School.
I conclude the article:
We have seen that the relationship between the Catholic Church and Ryan Walters is entirely symbiotic: Walters has received money, political and legal support from the Catholics, and in turn the Church has also received money and, with the possibility of a publicly-funded Catholic virtual charter school, the potential for significantly more money in the future. The Church put Ryan Walters into a position in which he can lay down the tracks so that the educational gravy train can chug-chug-chug along…and, as I argue elsewhere, potentially more “First Amendment-protected” trains can roll down the same financial tracks in the future.
Click here to learn all the details.
Image: Ryan Walters speaking to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in September 2023 (Source).
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