Attorney General Drummond takes over, dismisses Gov. Stitt's lawsuit against ClassWallet

I will be the first to admit that I'm skeptical of Attorney General Drummond on a lot of issues, but I think he's dead right on this one. 

Background from a 2023 post on this issue:

Back in 2020, Oklahoma officials hired ClassWallet to distribute $17.3M in a federal COVID-19 relief program, intending for these funds to be used for private school tuition and materials. This could be considered one of Gov. Stitt's and now-State Superintendent Ryan Walters' first "school choice" programs.

It ended in abject failure and scandal, with a lot of taxpayer money being misspent. After a lot of frankly pathetic passing-the-buck by several individuals, Walters among them, former Attorney General John O'Connor filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state against ClassWallet for mishandling the funds. I felt that was oddly misplaced at the time, as emails later showed that blanket approval was given by Walters and others in government.

Walters, in particular, who gave "blanket approval" to the spending, bears a lot of responsibility for the failure of the program - responsibility that to this day he continues to dodge and deflect (it's always someone else's fault, don't you know...). 

State Auditor Byrd after finding $30M in questionable spending: "State of Oklahoma dropped the ball on compliance and oversight"

Ouch. This audit is pretty bad. State Auditor Cindy Byrd has released an audit of federally-funded grants (mainly COVID relief/stimulus money), finding about $30,000,000 in "questioned costs". This audit is federally-mandated, and could end up with the State of Oklahoma having to repay the misspent funds.

It pretty much comes down to an atmosphere of lackadaisical oversight, careless implementation, and seemingly outright intentions to flout spending rules. A proto-school choice program pushed by Gov. Stitt and then-Secretary of Education (now State Superintendent) Ryan Walters draws specific attention in the scathing report.

Here are some additional news articles to read on the audit:

• ‘Systemic issue’: Audit finds Oklahoma lacked oversight of pandemic relief funds [NonDoc]
• Audit finds special interest groups gave Oklahoma private schools first-dibs on federal relief money while rejecting poor kids [The Frontier]
• Auditor: Oklahoma Spent Millions of Federal Dollars Incorrectly [OklahomaWatch]

Byrd's press release is below:

STATE AUDITOR BYRD RELEASES FEDERAL SINGLE AUDIT

“The State of Oklahoma dropped the ball on compliance and oversight.”

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (June 27, 2023) Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector (SAI) Cindy Byrd released today the Federal Single Audit of expenditures made during SFY 2021 which includes pandemic funds. This annual audit is a federally-mandated examination of how the State of Oklahoma spends federal grant money and whether the State complied with federal regulations.

AG Drummond dismisses ClassWallet lawsuit, vows accountability for responsible parties

Back in 2020, Oklahoma officials hired ClassWallet to distribute $17.3M in a federal COVID-19 relief program, intending for these funds to be used for private school tuition and materials. This could be considered one of Gov. Stitt's and now-State Superintendent Ryan Walters' first "school choice" programs.

It ended in abject failure and scandal, with a lot of taxpayer money being misspent. After a lot of frankly pathetic passing-the-buck by several individuals, Walters among them, former Attorney General John O'Connor filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state against ClassWallet for mishandling the funds. I felt that was oddly misplaced at the time, as emails later showed that blanket approval was given by Walters and others in government.

Now, Attorney General Gentner Drummond has dropped that particular suit and intends to go after individuals who are more directly responsible for the lack of oversight. 

First, some additional background, then Drummond's press release. Here's some detail from TheFrontier and OklahomaWatch: