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When Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Lindel Fields as the new state schools superintendent a year ago, he gave one instruction: Take the politics out of education and get back to common sense.

A 30-year veteran of Oklahoma schools who had most recently served as superintendent of Tri County Tech in Bartlesville, Fields had his work cut out for him.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters had abruptly resigned in September 2025 halfway through his term. In the final weeks of his tenure, Walters announced investigations into dozens of Oklahoma educators over social media statements about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and called for Turning Point USA chapters in every Oklahoma high school. He was a regular on right-wing news shows where he accused teachers’ unions of using terrorist tactics, warned of left-wing indoctrination in classrooms and portrayed himself as a religious warrior fighting a battle against liberal influence in public education. Walters brought national attention to Oklahoma over his plan to incorporate the Bible into classroom instruction. He sought to rewrite social studies standards to include more references to Christianity and questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and pursued the removal of teachers over political speech.

“At my first board meeting, we had 22 cameras,” Fields told The Frontier during a recent interview. “In our last board meeting, we had zero … being a boring leader seems like a negative thing, but in this case, it’s certainly something we were proud of.”

Fields said the Oklahoma State Department of Education had over 80 outstanding open records requests, a backlog of teacher certification revocation cases, and more than 20 lawsuits when he took office last October. Worse, employee morale was low and communication between schools and his department was difficult.

 “As I understand it, folks felt like they weren’t really allowed to do their jobs,” Fields said.

The Frontier reached out to Walters, who now leads the anti-teachers’ union group Teacher Freedom Alliance. Walters did not respond to a request for comment.

Fields, content in his interim role, knew he had just 15 months to “clear the runway” for his successor and understood that his job wasn’t necessarily to transform Oklahoma’s education system, but to restore stability for whoever replaced him in the next election.

Putting out fires

Fields had spent decades in education, but as a recent retiree, he watched the controversies surrounding Walters’ administration from the outside.

Once inside the State Department of Education, Fields said he began to understand how deeply those controversies had affected educators. He recalled hearing from teachers who had grown anxious about communications from the state department, which Fields said had focused more on compliance than communication under Walters. Teachers, Fields said, had told him they were often afraid to open their email inboxes.

The turmoil likely affected students, too, Fields acknowledged. 

“I think everybody felt it,” he said.

Though Walters was gone, Fields had inherited several of his leftover projects, including Walters’ revamped social studies standards and his efforts to place Bibles in classrooms.

Fields said he didn’t approach those issues as political disputes. Instead, he focused on “common sense” resolutions. He ended the plan to require Bibles in classrooms, leaving that decision up to individual teachers. The Oklahoma Supreme Court invalidated Walters’ social studies standards after finding that the State Board of Education violated open meeting law when it approved them. 

Fields believes his status as an interim superintendent helped. With no campaign promises to uphold and no re-election bid, he could focus his attention on the job. 

“I don’t think we would have been able to enjoy the limited success we had if I was running,” Fields said. “We’ve been apolitical, and I think that helped us in our world.”

The problems that remain

Fields acknowledged that Oklahoma’s educational challenges remain. 

Improving academic performance, recruiting and retaining teachers, and raising literacy rates will require sustained attention beyond any single superintendent’s tenure, he said. He believes teacher pay is an important part of recruitment, but said higher salaries alone won’t solve the state’s workforce challenges. Oklahoma ranked 48th in education among states in 2026 in the  Annie E. Casey Foundation for low reading and math proficiency scores. 

Educators who don’t feel valued will eventually seek opportunities elsewhere, regardless of their salaries, he said. 

“The real challenge is appreciation,” he said.

Fields also believes Oklahoma needs something it has lacked: a long-term vision for what its education system should accomplish. 

The state’s approach is like that of a football team repeatedly running plays without a larger strategy, Fields said. 

“What do we want education to look like?” Fields said. “Otherwise we’re just spinning our wheels.”

Fields’ tenure will end in January, when either Republican Robert Franklin or Democrat Jennettie Marshall will take office following the November election. His advice for his successor was short.

“Go out and build relationships,” he said. “The first thing you need to do is to get to know the people in the building, communicate with them.” 

The next superintendent shouldn’t think of themselves as a celebrity and shouldn’t feel compelled to launch initiatives that are more about their political ambitions than the schools and students they serve, he said.

“I believe the schools are customers of the State Department of Education, and you need to connect with your customers,” he said, noting he hopes the agency’s new focus on communication and appreciation will outlast his tenure. “I think we’ve left it way better than we found it. The next person, they have a clear runway.”