A dozen Oklahoma school districts have said they will not check the immigration status of students if the state Department of Education requests it, the latest sign of growing opposition to Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.
Walters announced last week at the State Board of Education’s monthly meeting that he planned to ask school administrators to help his office calculate the “costs and burdens” of illegal immigration on their districts. “The federal government has failed to secure our border. Our schools are suffering,” he said. He did not elaborate on what districts would be asked to do, but said the Oklahoma State Department of Education would issue guidance in the coming weeks.
“Oklahoma parents have demanded action to stop woke indoctrination in the classroom, and I will continue to fight to put Oklahoma schools on a path to success,” Walters said in a statement to NBC News. “Districts that refuse to cooperate will be held accountable.”
The immigration announcement is the latest in a series of controversial moves by Walters, a Republican who has focused on culture war issues in his first year and a half in office, including demanding in June that public schools include the Bible in their curriculum.
School teachers and administrators have been reluctant to publicly denounce Walters, but the backlash is growing.
“The focus has shifted from public school students to self-centered political aspirations,” said Susan Wray, an Edmond elementary school principal and former Department of Education official. “None of what’s happening now is about our children, and that’s what hurts teachers.”
Supreme Court case law shows that public schools must enroll children who live within their districts, regardless of their immigration status or their ability to speak and understand English. School districts also cannot ask students about their immigration status if it could be used to deny them access to a free public education, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.
“I’m going to have to go to the U.S. Supreme Court over an elected state official,” said Rob Miller, superintendent of Bixby Public Schools, one of the districts that won’t check students’ immigration status if asked. “Part of my job as a superintendent, and for other superintendents in our state, is to follow the laws of the land.”
The Migration Policy Institute, a think tank focused on immigration, estimates that there will be 90,000 undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma in 2022, including 6,000 school-age children. According to the institute’s analysis, two-thirds of them live in the counties that include Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the state’s largest.
Portraying immigrants as a burden is misleading, according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, an independent research group. “Our immigrant neighbors contribute to our communities, including by paying taxes,” the group wrote in a July 31 statement, citing a recent national survey on the issue.
Oklahoma City Public Schools said in a statement that it “does not and will not collect the immigration status of our students or their families.” Tulsa Public Schools did not indicate whether it would do so, but said it is committed to providing an education to “every young person who comes through our doors.”
Four of the other eight largest districts — Broken Arrow, Moore, Norman and Union — said they would not check students’ immigration status, a practice that would “create a chilling effect and discourage students and families from enrolling in school,” Union Public Schools spokesman Chris Payne said.
There’s a similar sentiment among smaller districts. The Deer Creek, Pryor, Millwood, Owasso and Jenks school districts told NBC News that they are not currently asking students about their status, and they don’t plan to do so.
Jeremy Hogan, superintendent of Collinsville Public Schools, said that because the district would not ask for immigration documentation, “we would not be able to provide the state with any ‘cost’ data.”
Right-wing organizations in the state and nationwide have praised Walters for the positions he has taken and the fights he has waged in office. Kevin Roberts, head of Project 2025, thanked Walters for his “heroic work” in an April interview.
Walters pressured a school district to fire a principal for performing in drag outside of school; the principal resigned. He threatened to take over Tulsa Public Schools after district leaders told a board member she couldn’t lead prayers at the microphone during a graduation ceremony. The State Board of Education, which Walters chairs, has tried for more than a year to revoke the license of a teacher who shared a link to the Brooklyn Public Library’s online lending catalog in 2022.
Walters has responded to criticism by labeling teachers unions “terrorist organizations” and, after many school districts said they would not follow orders to teach the Bible, he called on administrators who did not comply with his directive to relocate to California.
“Those are not the words of leaders who should be bringing people together to improve education in our state,” said Miller, the Bixby superintendent. “And I think people are just a little tired of all that.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
