On the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week and less than two weeks after the Oklahoma City Murrah Building bombing anniversary, State Superintendent Ryan Walters called teachers unions “terrorist organizations.”

It would be laughable if not so dangerous and offensive.

Walters enjoys kicking up smoke while tilting at windmills, but his antics have grown tired. His rhetoric is now threatening.

Words have weight, particularly when coming from a person in a position of power. When he labels teachers as terrorists, people listening may take that literally. Domestic terrorist attacks show people willing to act upon what leaders say, even if completely untrue.

Walters was elected to boost education, not put educators in danger.

Teachers are not terrorists.

Oklahoma’s educators are working under stressful conditions, exacerbated by anti-public school activists and poor resources. Oklahoma’s average teacher pay ranks 38th nationally and 42nd in average starting pay. Per-pupil spending is last in the region and 47th nationally.

Walters performs when he’s in public, often to a packed gallery of fringe activists. He’s a provocateur, showing little substance or knowledge beyond sound bites stolen from national right-wing flamethrowers.

This latest outlandish accusation came during a hearing of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, for which Walters was strong-armed to appear.

Despite the fires Walters enjoys setting, questions mostly from members of his own party centered on operations of the state education department. His answers were not reassuring.

Peeling away the theater, Walters’ job is to run the agency effectively. That means meeting deadlines for federal grants, collecting data, acting as an efficient pass-through for funds and hiring a staff of policy experts for local district supports.

Local school officials and constituents are ringing warning bells that Walters is not doing his job. There are concerns that the department is not staffed adequately, grant deadlines are missed and federal funding has been turned away.

That’s the information legislators are seeking.

Walters did not provide specific answers. He was vague, combative and quickly pivoted into his well-worn diatribe against “woke ideology” and “liberal indoctrination.” He has promised to provide a list of answers to lawmakers by the end of next week.

More telling, he characterized the governance of his predecessor, Joy Hofmeister, as a “dumpster fire,” obviously planting seeds to shift blame if incompetence is uncovered.

Also, teachers unions have no role at the agency. They negotiate with local districts on aspects from wages to limits on plan period times.

To blame either is a red herring. Walters is in charge; the buck stops with him.

We appreciate the House leadership, particularly among the supermajority of Republicans, in holding Walters accountable. It will be Republicans who have the most influence to effect a change in Walters’ governance and approach.

It’s time for Walters to drop the act and get to work for all Oklahomans, not just the ones who look and think like him.