Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - Standing Up to the Biden Administration with Ryan Walters

00:00:00.000 hey everybody welcome back to the gains for girls podcast today's guest is ryan walters uh he is

00:00:13.100 the oklahoma superintendent of public education if his name sounds familiar that's because you've

00:00:19.040 probably heard of him uh he has been just incredible he has been a vocal critic of

00:00:23.760 uh critical race theory he's been a vocal critic of gender ideology in schools of the

00:00:29.500 pornographic books in schools of teacher unions in oklahoma um i would describe him as oklahoma's top

00:00:36.460 and really that one of the nation's top culture warriors uh one thing that he is doing right now

00:00:42.300 which shows his tenacity and grit he's suing the biden administration and the department of education

00:00:48.500 uh really wonderful things he is also the first person uh the first elected official who said he

00:00:53.940 will not comply oklahoma will not comply to joe biden's illegal administrative rewrite of title

00:01:00.480 nine uh that right there should tell you everything about his leadership uh and unwillingness to comply

00:01:07.540 really wonderful stuff so check out the interview here with ryan walters i am so glad you're able to

00:01:14.580 join the gains for girls podcast uh before we get into anything i wanted to give you the opportunity

00:01:19.180 to tell us a little bit about yourself and what's your role as superintendent of public schools in

00:01:25.100 oklahoma looks like well thank you so much for having me today riley um you know hey my daughters

00:01:31.340 are gonna be so thrilled i'm on the show today uh you know i am a former history teacher i taught high

00:01:37.320 school history i was a tennis coach and a basketball coach um i ran for this position to be the superintendent

00:01:42.780 of state of the state of oklahoma so i oversee all of our schools so the enforcement of our rules laws

00:01:48.520 of our school districts are uh part of my power here in the state you know i ran for this office

00:01:54.800 because i heard from parents that were so frustrated right they were so frustrated that we were in a

00:01:59.640 conservative state we didn't have school choice we had boys playing girls sports we had critical race

00:02:05.060 theory and dei in our school so i ran for this office i was able to win despite the best efforts of

00:02:09.920 the teachers unions and now it's uh you know it's been full steam ahead with a blueprint for states on

00:02:15.480 here's how you do conservative reform and education we have been very proud of our track record we're

00:02:20.640 very proud of our successes and so here in oklahoma you know we're going to keep fighting for parents

00:02:24.920 over bureaucrats we're going to keep putting parents in charge and running the teachers unions out of our 1.00

00:02:29.480 schools and again here we still have common sense like most of the country does uh to understand that

00:02:34.480 boys are boys girls are girls and we're not going to allow a woke agenda to overtake our our classrooms

00:02:39.800 thank goodness for it uh speaking of of all of the boys are boys girls are girls uh i was so

00:02:49.000 impressed and grateful i saw a video of you of course you came out strong against the biden

00:02:55.960 administration's rewrite of title nine you were really the first person to basically reject these

00:03:03.000 guidelines and these implications of this proposal you vowed that and after that after your leadership we saw

00:03:09.800 other governors we saw governor abbott uh governor sarah huckabee sanders other elected officials

00:03:14.280 uh basically pledge the same willingness to not comply uh and so what led you to make that statement

00:03:22.840 and ultimately take that action well you know ultimately when we looked at it in real time um you

00:03:28.920 know we we had an understanding that was really be a three-pronged approach number one we wanted to give

00:03:34.360 districts clarity right from the outset you don't obey this this edict from the biden administration

00:03:39.800 this is this is um unlawful it goes against common sense and so the first thing that we did immediately

00:03:46.360 was respond and had talked about it in our board meeting no district will comply so we sent an email

00:03:52.920 out every district said this is direct guidance from the state department of education not to comply

00:03:57.240 with the biden administration so again then we had superintendents reaching out to us going thank

00:04:01.080 you you know we were worried don't could the federal government sue us directly could they come after

00:04:05.240 us well we're standing in between joe biden's radical regime and our local schools so they were very

00:04:11.080 thankful that we gave them legal guidance a legal memo right from the outset that said oklahoma will not

00:04:16.200 comply and districts you will not comply with this edict number two we were the first state department

00:04:21.880 and we're still the only one the state department of education we sued the biden administration

00:04:26.200 so we sued them directly i know other states have sued but it was so important for us to sue

00:04:31.480 as a department of education because there's really two things here number one riley and i know you know

00:04:37.160 this they broke their own rules to pass this title nine rewrite so i mean first of all it's just amazing

00:04:43.800 what democrats are willing to do to push this woke agenda onto our kids they break their own rules

00:04:49.720 inside their agency on rulemaking so they broke their own rules to do it number one number two we we point to

00:04:55.000 the fact that they don't have the legal authority to rewrite title nine in the way that they did so

00:05:00.360 we we were the first state department of education to sue them on that front and then third you know

00:05:04.680 something that i i've been talking about a lot and boy i've heard you out there talking about it

00:05:08.920 heard president trump has made this campaign promise which i believe is so important we've got

00:05:14.120 to abolish the department of education and that's one of the things we've tried to be very vocal about

00:05:17.960 we don't need a department of education this is what they do they come in and they try to socially

00:05:22.680 engineer our states and our schools they try to weaponize the federal government's power against

00:05:27.640 parents and it's time to do away with it once and for all and that's where you know we've been very

00:05:31.400 clear here hey we need to have president trump back in the white house to get that done so that we can

00:05:36.520 finally give education back to the states where it belongs and then the states should do like we do

00:05:41.080 here in oklahoma and let's give all the education power back to the parents where god gave that power

00:05:46.440 originally amazing yeah you mentioned uh the biden administration breaking their own law which is

00:05:53.000 almost comical given the irony considering everything going on uh the travesty that has befallen our

00:06:01.880 justice system recently with president trump now you've got joe biden tweeting no one is above the law

00:06:08.280 i guess if by no one he means his political opponents because you're right whether it's it's this

00:06:13.960 issue whether it's uh the student debt relief even thinking he's above the highest courts the supreme

00:06:19.640 courts and and ultimately they ruled that this exceeded his authority but to which he he blatantly

00:06:25.560 said he did not care so uh the irony is is almost comical and yeah this this i guess is kind of just

00:06:31.240 a question out of ignorance uh if the department of education at the federal level were to be abolished

00:06:38.280 i mean would this threaten like your position at a state level yeah no great question and so

00:06:43.720 really when you if you abolish the federal department of education what you would do

00:06:48.360 is then any kind of funding that you would want to go to schools that needs to go directly to parents

00:06:52.680 that don't have it go through an apparatus that then can put all these requirements on there

00:06:57.000 the parents should really have the education funding and let them take it to a private school 0.69

00:07:00.520 home school charter school however they wish and let states determine how to oversee their schools so

00:07:05.880 again you know a position like mine look i i love the fact i'm elected by the people i'm

00:07:10.040 i'm answerable to the people of oklahoma so you know parents reach out to us directly we

00:07:14.200 have hotlines for parents who feel like their kids are not being uh their parents rights are being uh

00:07:19.480 you know uh stepped over or that if they feel like there is a boy in a girl's sport or if they

00:07:24.040 see that crt is being pushed on their kids or they see their kids are being mistreated in a school and

00:07:28.680 being indoctrinated they can reach out directly to our agency and we can go in there and make sure that

00:07:33.080 our schools are obeying the law so we've we've gone into certain districts and said listen we found

00:07:37.800 you breaking state law so we're going to threaten your accreditation teachers and administrators if

00:07:42.840 you say we're going to blatantly disregard the law and do illegal activity with kids we're going to take

00:07:47.640 your license away from you we're not going to allow that type of behavior so it really empowers states

00:07:53.160 to give power back to families but also to figure out their own way to make sure that their their

00:07:57.720 schools are following the law the federal government all they've continued to do and i want to take even one

00:08:02.120 step back riley if i can please the federal department of education remember the common core

00:08:07.640 fight when that when the federal department of education decided that they knew a better way to

00:08:11.720 do math and it was this super convoluted everyone hated it uh that came from the federal department

00:08:17.080 of education critical race theory came from the federal department of education dei came from the

00:08:22.040 federal department of education and so you continue to see this well you know how do we get this into

00:08:27.400 schools well let's use the federal government not only the bureaucracy to enforce it

00:08:32.040 but also federal funds and put all these strings attached to them and then threaten the states to

00:08:37.400 jerk those funds back if they don't abide by our edicts and so it's a very simple process to to abolish

00:08:43.400 that department it's also you've got the agency and then you have the local implementation of that

00:08:49.480 agency which is the teachers unions so the the they work together remember when they shut down schools

00:08:55.480 it was absolutely a coordinated effort we saw that when their emails were leaked out

00:08:59.160 um that the teachers unions had the department of education help advocate to shut down schools

00:09:05.240 across the country that's where they tried to work they tried to work through that bureaucracy

00:09:08.680 and again without president trump in the white house um you're going to continue to see that agency run

00:09:12.840 amok yeah no that makes sense thank you for that explanation again that was pretty solely out of out of

00:09:19.240 ignorance there um but there's no no doubt that your job has been tough uh i've seen videos of you

00:09:26.680 getting protested people at at the state house the state capitol uh with signs and flags and of course 0.86

00:09:33.640 hurling the most obscene heinous profane things your way uh your family's way even uh we saw what happened

00:09:43.240 at an oklahoma public school uh gained garnered national attention surrounding next benedict this

00:09:49.960 is of course a non-binary i believe a 10th grader uh who tragically committed suicide uh this is

00:09:56.280 something that you got blamed for this is something that i got blamed for anyone who opposes or even

00:10:02.200 dares to question the gender ideology movement got blamed for this so i wanted to get your take you know

00:10:09.000 in your opinion what is the real root of the problem here you know it's as you know that one

00:10:15.640 was one of the more sickening things um that i've dealt with as the state superintendent here is yep i i

00:10:21.480 remember you know we had the suicide it's always just such a tragedy when you lose a child here in our

00:10:27.080 schools it was a tragedy about a week had gone by uh we'd offer school you know counselors to go to the

00:10:32.520 school help out help all the students the families and then we saw some some radical left-wing

00:10:38.040 blogger come out and say well actually you know why this student committed suicide because

00:10:43.160 of conservatives because of conservatives in the state they name me they name you

00:10:47.880 um and they start ratcheting up this is because of conservatives banning boys in the girls bathrooms

00:10:53.720 um all of these type of things they lie about a fight that happened in the school claim that

00:10:58.040 it happened in a certain way that the that the kid was the next benedict was killed in the bathroom

00:11:02.760 well that's not what happened at all um so they start this lie out and they start trying to blame

00:11:07.800 all of us and we're sitting here you know you know we see the suicide notes we see what nexon said we

00:11:13.160 see the issue and it had nothing to do with anything they're talking about you know um the child

00:11:18.360 struggled i had a real struggle their whole life um and it was not it was dealing with the family it

00:11:23.960 was dealing with accusations around um issues with the father um and so you had all this and you're

00:11:28.920 going these left-wing fanatics could care less about the kid they could care less about how the

00:11:33.640 child died they could care less about the actual causes of it they just want to blame conservatives

00:11:38.680 it was a pure political um attack they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in our state

00:11:45.000 the um i'm trying to remember the name of the group now it's an lgbtq plus group to have ads

00:11:51.960 targeting me saying i killed this student in our state but you see how radical these groups are to fight

00:11:57.400 for their gender ideology and to push it on kids but they could care less about the death of a child

00:12:02.040 they wanted to make it a political talking point rather than actually trying to understand what

00:12:05.880 happened there and again it's sick but it's a it's a great example of what we see in the country

00:12:11.000 today from the radical left they will do anything to push their agenda they will imprison president

00:12:16.840 trump they will lie about the death of a child they will i've seen that the physical attacks on you

00:12:21.720 riley it's just sickening to watch them try to bully and intimidate you the way that they do

00:12:26.040 but the left will go to there's no bounds to which they won't go to get their way and this is why

00:12:32.040 this election is so important this fall but every we've got to have conservatives mobilize we've got

00:12:37.320 to push back on this because if you don't if you back down to a woke mob they just get more and more

00:12:42.520 violent more and more unruly we have to win this war no doubt about that and yeah you're right it's not just

00:12:48.520 this topic it is any topic it's uh it's covid we saw the fauci hearing uh recently it's the border

00:12:56.200 stuff it's every topic they will find a way to vilify their political opponents uh which is is sad

00:13:06.760 you know as young people watching this country uh be polarized in the way that it is uh it's incredibly

00:13:14.760 disheartening uh but earlier this year uh you brought on kaya kaya rychik is one of she's of

00:13:21.720 course the creator of lives of tick tock which does a perfect job and i mean really just holding up a

00:13:29.560 mirror to the insanity of the left she does nothing else other than amplify their own words their own

00:13:36.680 intersectional language and actions you both are are constantly accused of bomb threats and different

00:13:43.640 things kaya quite literally i mean like hundreds and hundreds of them all across the nation and so

00:13:49.480 i wanted to ask you i think this is a wonderful move uh given her platform uh given the impact that

00:13:55.320 she is able to have uh but i wanted to ask you you know what led you to do this and do you have any

00:14:02.440 regrets given the backlash that i i'm it's certain that you face for doing this well you know honestly and

00:14:09.160 um i know you've seen this too the more the left reacts and the backlash it more tells me that i'm

00:14:15.880 over the target and i made the right move actually so uh the way that they responded to that just was

00:14:20.520 a better even a better indicator that was the right thing to do but but kaya had been helping me for i

00:14:25.720 think nearly a year before the appointment uh she would send me information on teachers and again the

00:14:31.000 brilliance of her platform to go this is the video of them saying this not me saying it about them

00:14:36.360 them them saying it themselves and we were able to take teacher certificates get them out of the

00:14:41.160 classrooms that were pushing um you know one of them was pushing anarchist uh propaganda on kids

00:14:47.400 we had several grooming uh and sexual assaults um that she was able to find for us so we were very very

00:14:54.200 enthusiastically excited to bring her on board to help us continue to uncover indoctrination in the

00:14:59.960 classroom uh radical leftist pushing an agenda on our kids and so yeah you know the left the teachers

00:15:05.720 union boy they lost it riley i mean the uh we had her uh you know do a video announcement when we

00:15:11.080 brought her on board and oh my goodness they were losing their mind at the board meeting they were

00:15:14.920 out protesting and and we keep coming back to we want to be the most transparent state in the country

00:15:21.720 we've got a lady here who has done more to uncover what's going on in the classroom than anybody else in 0.88

00:15:27.560 the country of course we would be thrilled to have her on board to have her helping us continue to 0.86

00:15:33.240 uncover what's going on in the classrooms and she's just been tremendous she's been a tremendous

00:15:37.400 partner there and we couldn't be more proud of that partnership with her yeah you guys have had

00:15:43.000 um some real success which is a lot more than what other states can say uh but yeah to your point she's

00:15:49.800 been successful and in states across the country really um speaking of you know oklahoma you you

00:15:56.360 mentioned transparency here all the time i live in a red state i'm from tennessee i'm very blessed to be

00:16:03.000 from tennessee uh where things aren't as bad as other states or at least so people think um you know

00:16:11.480 people think a lot of this stuff is happening in california or new york or uh michigan or maine or

00:16:18.360 these states that that tend to be pretty progressive uh but in your experience you know i i wanted to kind of

00:16:25.480 of get your your perspective i think there's a lot of complacency from people in red states uh

00:16:31.960 complacent complacency that's ultimately led us to where we are now scratching our heads saying you know

00:16:37.720 how how have we reached the point where people really think and it's being implemented that boys

00:16:43.960 can be girls and girls can be boys and so do you think states like oklahoma like tennessee like florida

00:16:51.080 uh are susceptible to this madness um at the same rate or even sometimes i would argue at a higher

00:16:59.160 rate than a lot of these blue states right look i couldn't agree more you know i just want to tell

00:17:05.400 your audience i know that they see all that you're doing on the national level and states across the

00:17:09.240 country here in oklahoma we would not have had our save women sports act if it wasn't for you if you 1.00

00:17:14.120 wouldn't have come here and really used your platform to help us get that across the finish line i don't

00:17:18.840 think it would have happened and so you see even in a red state every one of the oklahoma's counties

00:17:24.040 voted for president trump in the last two elections every one of our counties did and yet we have had

00:17:29.000 trouble getting school choice across the finish line we finally did that we've had issues banning

00:17:34.040 several of the critical race theory several of these elements in our classrooms and what you see here

00:17:38.840 is as what i have encountered is in a red state what your teachers unions do is they go in and they

00:17:45.000 try to buy people out from the republican party hey they know that the democrats probably aren't going to

00:17:48.600 have near as much sway obviously in a red state so we're going to go buy off a few influential

00:17:53.000 republicans and we're going to block reforms we're going to take over the state department of education

00:17:58.120 riley when i came on board i i had to get 130 uh bureaucrats out of this agency that were complete 1.00

00:18:04.680 leftists that were here to undermine the work we were doing so we had to get 130 folks out of here

00:18:09.240 to keep the work going forward and to make sure that what we're doing is answering the parents first

00:18:13.720 and not just be you know not being a rubber stamp for teachers unions but in red states what you see

00:18:18.440 is they take over the state departments of education they take over all these boards and

00:18:22.760 commissions and then they buy off republicans in influential places and so they do a lot of these

00:18:27.720 things where they're half measures they don't implement law the way that they should i mean that's

00:18:32.600 kind of you know george soros started doing this years ago he was getting involved in all these local

00:18:38.280 da races and school board races and i remember you know years ago people were going what's he doing

00:18:43.240 well now it's very obvious right you can pass whatever law you want but if you control the da's

00:18:48.280 they're gonna they're not going to enforce a law they don't like or they're going to weaponize their

00:18:52.120 offices against conservatives if you have all the local school boards they can sit here and pull a

00:18:57.320 school district all the way to the left and the community cannot even know you know they don't even

00:19:00.920 know what happens and a few years go by and they've got a bunch of radical leftists in their school

00:19:04.920 district so it's so important that red states lead on these issues so i'm under attack right

00:19:09.960 now riley i've got i've got a republican here in the state of oklahoma that's attacking me and trying

00:19:14.680 to make sure my agency can't tell the public what's going on in the schools he didn't like when i was

00:19:19.800 showing parents the pornography that we found in school so now he's trying to ban me from being able

00:19:24.440 to talk about these things publicly a republican um so you know it is amazing to see that type

00:19:30.840 of activity in red states but this is where we've got to play offense we should be um very aggressive

00:19:36.200 in our agenda we should move the ball forward because the conservative agenda is what's best

00:19:40.440 for kids is what's best for families is what's best for communities because we understand the

00:19:45.320 more that we can strengthen the family unit the more that we can protect that the more that we can

00:19:49.960 put mom and dad in charge of their kids and their kids education the better off they'll be the more we 0.99

00:19:55.240 protect their religious liberties so they can talk about their faith with their kid and express their

00:19:59.400 religious beliefs these are things that we know they're universal they stand the test of time

00:20:04.200 they lead to a huge positive impact for communities and it's a conservative agenda

00:20:10.120 that we shouldn't be compromising on we should be very aggressive on moving the ball forward

00:20:13.960 a hundred percent yeah uh both i think the issues that that you and i fight for uh they shouldn't be

00:20:20.920 partisan issues um this isn't something that i believe only conservatives should be fighting for

00:20:26.760 as you said it really is universal uh who wouldn't want parental rights uh who wouldn't want the

00:20:33.400 safeguarding of children or in the case of a lot of these you know issues in sports women's rights who

00:20:39.000 wouldn't want those things uh but what i have noticed is that republicans or at least people with

00:20:44.600 an r by their name uh can be our own worst enemies uh which is a sad reality um but nonetheless you

00:20:53.320 continue you continue to fight you continue to push uh i would argue pretty fearlessly um and if not

00:21:00.360 fearless certainly courageously and so you know why why do you continue despite the constant backlash

00:21:08.920 and the threats that you face and again that your family faces you know riley um it was it meant a lot to

00:21:16.600 me when um when you were when you were here we signed our save women's sports bill you know i i brought

00:21:22.280 my daughters with me violet and ella who by the way are going to be so thrilled that i'm on the show

00:21:26.040 today that they love you they are huge fans of the work you're doing um and uh you know i i look at

00:21:31.400 them that they're both tennis players um uh they're young 10 and 6 so you know they're young but but

00:21:37.080 we've got them in in these tennis uh lessons and uh you know they're working hard you know they they

00:21:42.120 they want to be good tennis players and you know you think about what the left would do to them if

00:21:47.880 they had their way you know first of all they would tell them that you know you might not be girls you

00:21:51.880 might be boys and confuse them in this way that could send their life on a terrible terrible path

00:21:57.800 number two you look at it and say so the left is willing to allow these girls to work hard their 0.99

00:22:03.480 whole life to be really good at a sport all the dedication all those life lessons that come from

00:22:08.440 athletic activities to show up at the state tournament have a boy say well today i think

00:22:13.240 i'm a girl you know i wasn't gonna do very well in the boys event but if i if i switch genders here

00:22:17.480 you know i might have a chance and jump in there and beat them at the at the state tennis tournament

00:22:22.520 you know how do you live in a society where you allow that to happen you know when you're a dad when

00:22:26.600 you're a mom and you see your kids going through this you know you got to fight for them you have to

00:22:30.440 fight for this next generation and for far too long you know adults have allowed this to happen to

00:22:35.240 our kids and now we're turning around and going we've allowed the left to control our 0.51

00:22:38.280 schools our education system it's not right you know we should be empowering our kids with a

00:22:44.440 good education we should be standing for common sense we should be the great country that we were

00:22:50.120 where we were able to tell kids hey you as an individual hey if you if you you know have keep

00:22:55.880 good faith you know you listen to what's right listen to god you listen to what's right you dedicate

00:23:00.840 yourself to something you work hard you try to do the right thing look look life life can be

00:23:06.040 incredible for you you can have such a positive influence on the world around you people around

00:23:10.200 you you have a great family um you know these are the type of things you want kids to hear about

00:23:15.000 and instead we've allowed leftists to take over our states our schools our country and so that's what

00:23:20.920 continues to motivate me is to look at my kids i've got two boys too two younger boys and and with

00:23:25.720 four kids you look at them and you go look i want to know that i've done all i can to make

00:23:30.440 oklahoma make the country a better place for them and then as i get to meet parents all over

00:23:34.760 the state you know it was an honor to run for this office i went to all 77 counties met all these

00:23:38.680 parents you know hey you want them to be able to tell their kids hey kids you know this state's

00:23:43.000 going to be better for you we're going to keep fighting for you we wanted to be encouraging for

00:23:46.520 them so that's why i keep doing it as for all those parents all the kids out there all the

00:23:50.680 families you want to make a oklahoma in the country a better place no doubt uh i had the honor of

00:23:56.600 meeting your family uh you have just the cutest family uh your wife is beautiful your kids are

00:24:02.520 just adorable so uh you're certainly blessed and i would imagine that's a big part and why you push

00:24:09.640 back in the way that you do uh and so ryan i'm so grateful for you i wish every state had a

00:24:16.680 superintendent like you uh the world would be a better place the country would be a better place and so

00:24:22.760 we're grateful for you uh we are on your side a hundred percent uh but in the meantime keep

00:24:28.680 pushing and we'll keep amplifying well riley that means so much i appreciate the opportunity to be on

00:24:34.520 your show today and i'm gonna tell you i can't thank you enough for the work you're doing you

00:24:37.480 are one of the most powerful individuals across the country you have led for our young girls you

00:24:42.200 have meant so much of the state of oklahoma but for so many parents and kids across the country

00:24:46.920 thank you for what you're doing i appreciate it so much and i know i'm speaking for millions of

00:24:51.720 people across the country that would love to say thank you uh for all that you're doing for the

00:24:55.720 country if every state had a superintendent like ryan uh the world not even just the country the world

00:25:03.080 would be a better place uh thank you guys for checking out the interview make sure you like

00:25:08.360 and subscribe anywhere where you get your podcasts you can check us out at outkick.com

00:25:12.760 and we will see you again next week

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - June 05, 2024

Standing Up to the Biden Administration with Ryan Walters

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