Jennifer Palmer

At the end of January, Oklahoma’s new Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, announced he would change course on a high-profile debacle involving Secretary of Education and now State Superintendent Ryan Walters — and lots of federal money.

An Oklahoma Watch Report

When Kevin Stitt hit the campaign trail in 2018, education was very much on the minds of voters. Thousands of Oklahoma teachers had descended on the state Capitol to strike, closing many schools for 10 days to draw attention to school funding needs.

In Stillwater, school library books are the latest moral outrage to dominate school board meetings.

Lax oversight of Gov. Stitt’s Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet program allowed parents to spend educational funds on TVs and other items. Oklahoma officials on Friday filed a lawsuit against ClassWallet, which it hired to handle the program.

A federal audit provides new insight into how Oklahoma failed to properly oversee $39.9 million in federal relief funds meant to support education amid school closures during the coronavirus pandemic.

A 52-page affidavit details a complicated, criminal enterprise devised by Epic Charter Schools’ co-founders David Chaney and Ben Harris, and former CFO Josh Brock. The three were arrested and booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center Thursday.

The latest probe found serious problems, including student attendance patterns that skirted state law; large, unapproved bonuses for staff and violations of laws on competitive bidding requirements.

Oklahoma gave a Florida company a no-bid contract to distribute $18 million in pandemic relief money as a test-run for school vouchers. Now federal investigators are eyeing the deal.

Epic Charter Schools is facing another investigation of its finances and governance, this one by the Internal Revenue Service, Oklahoma Watch has learned.