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As superintendent of education, Walters has pursued "culture war" causes.[34] In selfie videorecordings produced from his car and other public statements, Walters condemned what he called "woke ideology"; accused teachers of attempting to indoctrinate Oklahoma schoolchildren; referred to the Oklahoma teachers' union as a "terrorist organization"; and claimed that the separation of church and state was a liberal "myth."[34]

One of Walters's first acts in office was to instruct the Oklahoma Department of Education to revoke the teaching licenses of two Oklahoma teachers who had been critical of HB-1775, a law that limits teaching concepts around race and gender.[22]

In April 2023, the Oklahoma Attorney General's office under Gentner Drummond issued an opinion stating that HB 1775 does not grant authority to the State Board of Education "to make administrative rules without proper direction from the state Legislature"; as a result, Walters's "rules regarding pornography in library books, sex education, parents rights and inappropriate materials" were unenforceable.[35][36] Drummond said that he was not "taking a stance" on Walters's rules.[37] Ryan Kiesel, a civil rights attorney and political consultant, said in a KOSU story that, after asking Walters to show them the pornographic material Walters claims schools have, Walters emailed and had staff members hand-delivering copies of explicit materials to lawmakers' offices, though he never said what schools, if any, the materials came from.[38]

In June 2023, Walters spoke at the Moms for Liberty national summit in Philadelphia where he advocated eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and criticized teachers unions.[3] During a July town hall, Walters was asked "How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of (critical race theory)" and responded "Let's not tie it to the skin color and say that the skin color determined that."[39] The comments sparked social media backlash and were satirized by The Onion.[40][41][42] Walters had earlier in the event said "Our kids should know ... about the Tulsa Race Massacre. They absolutely should. There are (state academic) standards around that. I'll continually work for a more robust curriculum around these events."[43][44]

In September, Walters announced that the state would cooperate with conservative media group PragerU to provide curriculum to Oklahoma schools, a policy similar to one recently adopted in Florida.[45] Oklahoma Democrats criticized the curriculum as "whitewashing history".[46] Walters was featured in a PragerU video on their website acknowledging the partnership.[47] After the announcement, The Black Wall Street Times, a Tulsa-based African American newspaper, requested an interview with Walters, but was told by an Oklahoma Department of Education spokesperson that they were barred from interviews due to tweets by the paper's editor-in-chief.[48][47]