Oklahoma state superintendent's $50,000 contract raises questions on political ties

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahoma's state superintendent continues his big spending to promote his political agenda.

We're getting our first look at a new $50,000 contract with a Texas company and discovering how Texas ties within Ryan Walters's office may have played a role in securing the deal.

It was this incendiary video that aired during a state board of education meeting last May that led some teachers to tears and some parents to walk out.

"What was put out by the State Department of Education today is going to get somebody hurt," parent Erika Wright told us on May 23, 2023. "It crossed the line."

We began asking questions to find out who was behind what Walters called a 'public awareness campaign.'

"We want to make sure that folks understand the positions of the teachers union," Walters told us after that first video aired at the May 2023 meeting.

The following month, the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) shared a video that describes transgender students as a threat to school safety.

We learned last year that the OSDE paid Houston-based Precision Outreach over $22,000 to produce 30 minutes of videos, and now, $50,000 more Oklahoma tax dollars are headed to the Texas company.

Through an Open Records Request, we have the contract that shows we're paying $150 an hour for the company to help create 10 social media posts and 2 videos a month, at $7,500 a month.

The annual contract could be renewed for up to 3 years.

The bid from Precision Outreach was the only bid the state received.

In it, Precision Outreach touted it's responsible for building and running a large school choice organization, Liberty for Kids.

The owner of Precision Outreach is Jess Fields, who we found already had deep ties to the state superintendent's office.

Fields ran for a House seat in the Texas legislature in 2016 and lost.

Among those working on his campaign was the senior advisor to Superintendent Ryan Walters, Matt Langston. Fields's campaign paid $104,348.61 to Axiom Strategies where Langston was listed as vice-president.

Langston was also directly paid $9,000 from Fields's campaign.

When Fields answered our call, we tried to ask him about his relationship with Langston and find out just how many of the superintendent's social media posts were actually created by him, but Fields said he couldn't speak with us.

This isn't the only out-of-state spending to promote Walters's agenda.

FOX 25, in collaboration with Oklahoma Watch, was the first to report the state's contract with DC-based Vought Strategies.

Tens of thousands of your tax dollars are being spent to help land Walters appearances on national broadcasts.

Once again, the owner's resume overlaps with Matt Langstons's.

Vought Strategies was also the only bidder for that job.

We reached out to Langston to ask about his ties to both these out-of-state vendors who are promoting the state superintendent with your tax dollars.

We got a statement from an OSDE spokesman saying:

Superintendent Walters is deeply committed to bringing dramatic change to Oklahoma schools, and will not allow the left-wing media to misrepresent his ideas to Oklahomans.

For more local news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter by clicking here.