Lawmakers vote to limit Ryan Walters' ability to revoke teaching licenses as more suspensions loom

Lawmakers have voted to limit the Oklahoma State Board of Education's ability to revoke teaching licenses, a move that could effectively impede state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters' control over educators.

If approved by the governor, House Bill 1277 would set specific reasons why Walters and the Board of Education could revoke or suspend a teaching license. Reasons listed in the bill include: a willful violation of federal or state law, the abuse or neglect of a child or moral turpitude.

Walters, a Republican who chairs the education board, has been criticized for targeting teachers with opposing political views, including former Norman Public Schools teacher Summer Boismier, whose license was revoked after she posted a QR code to the Brooklyn Public Library in her classroom in 2022, which gave students online access to a wide variety of books, including many questioned by school authorities.

Superintendent Ryan Walters at the Oklahoma State Education Board meeting at the Oliver Hodge Building, Thursday, April 24, 2025.

The state superintendent's office did not respond to a request for comment on HB 1277, which passed on the House floor in a 78-12 vote. It already had advanced through the Senate Education Committee and the Senate floor without a single question or comment.

Walters and the rest of the education board also met Wednesday, May 21, to consider the latest round of teacher license suspensions and revocations.

The original language of HB 1277, which was authored by Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, would have allocated $7.5 million to the Board of Education to provide grants to public schools to incentivize phone-free spaces. Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, shucked the bill's wording in April and replaced it with language that seeks to restrain the education board's authority over teaching licenses.

HB 1277's new language closely mirrors that of Senate Bill 797, a dormant bill authored by Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, the chair of the Senate Education Committee. Seifried serves as that committee's vice chair.

Both Pugh's dormant bill and the newly shucked bill out of the House would prohibit the education board from summarily revoking or suspending a teaching certificate before an individual proceeding for revocation or other action is conducted for the teacher. HB 1277 provides an exception to this for valid emergencies.

If signed into law, HB 1277 would require the board to provide notice to the teacher's school district at least three days before suspension or revocation. Pugh's bill would have required the board to take action on a teaching license within 60 days of providing notification. HB 1277 does not include this language.

The Edmond senator's bill was introduced after the education board threatened to suspend the teaching license of Regan Killackey, an Edmond Memorial High School teacher who Walters has claimed threatened President Donald Trump. The superintendent cited a five-year-old family photo on Instagram. In the photo, taken in 2019 during a visit to a Halloween supply store, Killackey's daughter was wearing a Trump mask, while her brother held up a plastic sword and their father had a grimace on his face.

HB 1277 is the second legislative attempt in recent weeks to rein in Walters. Senate Bill 646 sought to give education board members access to meeting agendas. The bill was originally written to create the Oklahoma Federal Official and Judicial Security and Privacy Act of 2025, but was amended by Rep. Dell Kerbs, R-Shawnee, to include new language about the Board of Education. The amendment was “untimely filed,” meaning it didn’t meet a legislative deadline.

Ryan Walters' history of controversial teaching license revocations, suspensions

Walters and the education board have routinely been accused by educators of failing to notify them about possible license suspensions and revocations.

In August 2024, the board voted to suspend the teaching license of Hall of Fame football coach Phil Koons, a year and a half after several Ringling players said he bullied and harassed them. At the time, Mike Johnson, an Oklahoma City attorney who represents Koons, said his client had received no formal notice about his possible suspension.

Before the board voted to suspend Aaron Espolt's teaching license in December 2024, attorneys for the former Shawnee Public Schools superintendent alleged in court filings that the state didn't provide proper notification. They argued "the facts in the application are vague and salacious and are written, in counsel's opinion, to cause harm to plaintiff's reputation."

If HB 1277 becomes law, it also would prevent Walters from targeting teachers because of their opposing political views, something Boismier alleges happened to her. Boismier had covered the bookshelves in her classroom with red butcher paper in protest of House Bill 1775, an Oklahoma law that prohibits schools from covering certain concepts on race and gender.

An administrative law judge found that Boismier had broken no law after Walters accused her of attempting to indoctrinate students with a “liberal political agenda” and called for her teaching license to be permanently revoked. The board eventually did so, but Boismier has a pending lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court, seeking to reverse that decision.

If Gov. Kevin Stitt signs HB 1277 or allows it to become law without his signature, it would become effective July 1.

The bill's passage doesn't necessarily signal the end of its original intent: helping Oklahoma public schools carry out cellphone bans. A different bill making its way through the Capitol, Senate Bill 1129, would direct the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability to administer a grant program for schools to purchase cellphone storage equipment.

That measure passed the Senate 30-13 on Tuesday, May 20, and is eligible to be heard on the House floor. If it becomes law, the state would appropriate $500,000 to the grant program.

(This story was updated to add new information because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Lawmakers vote to limit Ryan Walters' ability to revoke teaching licenses as more suspensions loom