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Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters and Rep. Mark McBride, who leads the House committee on education funding, appear to have repaired their working relationship.

Walters met with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education Wednesday to make his agency’s $3.9 billion budget pitch, just weeks after Chairman McBride and fellow Republicans Rep. Rhonda Baker and Speaker Charles McCall took the unusual step of issuing a subpoena to obtain information from the Education Department. Walters complied with the subpoena within a week. McBride said since then, communication has improved 100%, and he and Walters met privately last week.

“I think the big reset was: hey, this is appropriation and budget. I’m not a policy committee. This is about money,” McBride said. He encouraged Walters to focus on two topics: student outcomes and teachers.

Walters’ senior policy advisor, Matt Langston, has fired back with official statements like this one on Dec. 8:

Last month, McBride received in response to his request for information a letter signed by Langston that read: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Langston is a political consultant and Walters’ campaign manager.

Walters’ budget request includes $60 million for new programs related to his Back to Basics initiative. The funds would pay for signing bonuses for teachers in math and science as well as growth bonuses, tutoring and teacher training, expanding the department’s recent teacher bonus initiative and tutoring pilot program.

McBride said he likes some of Walters’ ideas and is considering filing a bill based on the teacher bonus proposal. McBride in 2022 authored legislation creating Inspired to Teach, an incentive program to award scholarships to future teachers and stipends once they are in the classroom.

The budget hearings are routine for each agency as the Legislature prepares to convene for the 2024 session. The Education Department will be back at the Capitol today to present to the Senate Committee on Education Appropriations at 10 a.m.

Questions, comments, story ideas? Please reach out via email or direct message.

— Jennifer Palmer

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