Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is getting taxpayers in his state to foot the bill to help him score interviews on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets.
Local news station Fox 25 reports that the Oklahoma State Department of Education earlier this month signed a contract with Washington D.C.-based Vought Strategies that will pay the firm $200 an hour to help Walters drum up publicity for himself and his initiatives.
Emails obtained by Fox 25 show that a Vought staffer sent out messages to national media outlets "pitching Walters for segments to talk about topics including fentanyl and the southern border, his fight against drag queens in the classrooms, PETA, teachers' unions, and certain library books."
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In an earlier interview, Walters claimed that using taxpayer cash to pay others to help get him on TV was necessary to help him recruit teachers to the state, despite the fact that many of his TV appearances deal with his assorted fights against teachers.
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"We have absolutely targeted those folks nationally, and we are going to continue telling Oklahoma's story," he said. "We're going to continue to recruit business to Oklahoma. We're going to recruit the best teachers in the country to come here and teach."
Walters has been highly controversial in his stint as superintendent, as when he hired online right-wing influencer Chaya Raichick to a key post despite the fact that her social media videos have been linked to multiple bomb threats made against schools and hospitals.
Walters has also vowed to destroy what he calls "the radical myth of separation of church and state" by bringing forced prayer back into schools in his state.
In fact, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution explicitly states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
In addition to this, American founding father Thomas Jefferson elaborated on the First Amendment in a letter sent in 1802 in which he said that the amendment's purpose was to build "a wall of separation between Church and State."
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