Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters is taking his views to a national stage.
Walters appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press Reports on Dec. 16 to talk about education with host Chuck Todd and fellow panelist Francesca Tripodi, a sociologist.
Walters continuously praised education based on individual choice. He said the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre occurred because white attackers opted for racism.
“I don’t believe people are inherently racist, but they chose to be racist, and that’s the discussion you have with young people. Those individuals chose an evil, racist ideology, and they acted that way,” said Walters.
Tripodi said focusing on the individual ignores society's influence.
"We can’t just think it’s just some individual person acting as a racist, we also need to understand how racism becomes embedded into different structures, like our school system.”
Tripodi used the example of schools being funded by property taxes, which creates wealth for some schools but not others.
“It also perpetuated a lot of problems that we’re facing today and that's not because a group of people was like, ‘I’m racist, I'm evil.’ This is embedded into how the school system runs in the United States,” said Tripodi.
In response, Walters emphasized American exceptionalism, “a Judeo-Christian value set,” and individual liberty.
“If we truly tell people . . . you are capable of self-determination, we can do great things, you can do great things, we’ve got to get back to that in our schools.”
Walters also praised PragerU, a California-based nonprofit that solicits donations to create classroom videos it says are meant to combat left-wing politics. Oklahoma announced a partnership with PragerU in September. Links to its materials are now available on the state department of education’s website.
