Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, is resigning after three controversial years in the role to lead a right-wing group he said will “destroy the teachers unions.”

Walters, who was elected in November 2022 and began serving the following January, spent his entire tenure making headlines for his attacks on teachers unions, including baselessly smearing educators as child abusers.

It appears Walters is ready to take his grudge against teachers to a national stage by becoming CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which bills itself as an “alternative” to teachers unions.

“We’re going to destroy the teachers unions,” Walters said Wednesday night on Fox News, as he announced his resignation and new role. “We’ve seen [them] use money and power to corrupt our schools.”

He did not mention his resignation at the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s monthly meeting on Thursday. Instead, he used his opening remarks to speak about Charlie Kirk, the CEO of Turning Point USA who was fatally shot in Utah earlier this month, and gave the floor over to a TPUSA employee.

Walters announced on Tuesday that every high school in Oklahoma would have a TPUSA chapter on campus. Kirk toured college campuses through his work with the organization, and often spread racist and misogynistic rhetoric to his young audiences.

When a local reporter asked on Tuesday what would happen to schools that decline to establish a chapter, he threatened to revoke their accreditation. “They would be in danger of not being a school district if they decided to reject a club that is here to promote civic engagement,” he said.

It’s unclear whether the plan to establish Turning Point USA chapters at high schools will move forward after Walters leaves office.

The Oklahoma schools chief has been embroiled in a string of controversies and scandals.

Walters has spent the past three years claiming without evidence that Oklahoma public schools are awash in sexually explicit material. He appointed right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik to a library advisory committee in January 2024, despite her lack of experience. Raichik gained notoriety through her Libs of Tik Tok account on X (formerly Twitter), where she posts videos of teachers who advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Walters proposed a rule for Oklahoma schools that would require districts to collect citizenship data, a measure that could have caused immigrant parents to pull their children from school. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that all children, regardless of immigration status, are entitled to enroll in a public school, but Walters’ proposal was in line with Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.

The Christian right has been attempting to inject religion into the public school system, and Walters has been at the forefront of the movement. In June 2024, Walters ordered Oklahoma public schools to use the Bible in instruction, even though the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another. He also attempted to purchase Bibles for schools that would enrich Trump ally Lee Greenwood, but was subsequently sued and blocked from implementing the policy.

Some organizations are celebrating his departure from Oklahoma schools.

“This is a win for Oklahomans. They’re better off without Walters,” Rachel Laser, the CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonprofit legal organization dedicated to keeping the government secular, said in a statement. “At every turn Ryan Walters abused the power of his government office as he attempted to impose his personal religious beliefs on Oklahoma school children.”