Weekly Opinion Editorial
DRAMA REIGNS!
by Steve Fair
The
Oklahoma state Board of Education (BOE) is composed of six members appointed by
the governor with the advice and consent of the State Senate and the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Members must have a minimum of a high school education. They serve staggered six-year terms with one
member’s term expiring every year. There
must be one member from each of the five congressional districts and one at
large member. There can’t be two members
from the same county. Members serve with
no compensation, but do get reimbursed for their travel expenses. The State Superintendent of Public
Instruction serves as chair of the body.
The current
makeup of the board wasn’t always the case.
From statehood until 1971, the board was composed of the State
Superintendent, the Governor, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney
General. When David Hall was governor,
the Democratic controlled legislature passed the 1971 Oklahoma School
Code. It is a chapter in the Oklahoma
statutes that gives the governor basically total sovereign control over the state
school board. He can appoint and dismiss
members at his will. This past week,
Governor Stitt did just that. The
governor replaced three members of the state school board because test scores
haven’t improved and the board seemed more interested in grabbing headlines and
creating drama than improving public education.
The three new nominees- Ryan Deathredge of Kingfisher, Michael Tinney of
Norman, and Chris VanDehende of Tulsa must be confirmed by the State Senate.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters condemned Stitt’s firing
of the board members on social media. “The
governor has joined the swampy political establishment that President Trump is fighting
against. Every Oklahoman should be clear
this move undermines Oklahoma kids and parents and an American First agenda,” Walters
declared. Three observations:
First, Trump
attracts self-promoters. It’s common for
successful people to be co-opted. Leeches,
sycophants and toadies, in all walks of life, cling to people of wealth, power
or influence to further themselves and their agenda. It has become popular to invoke Trump and
MAGA to excite or build support for a cause.
It is become a never-ending competition to gain credibility and
acceptability by flatterers and lackeys.
Instead of provoking, inciting and agitating, Superintendent Walters
should focus on reforming Oklahoma education.
Second, the
state school board should be reformed. The
current appointment process gives the governor sovereign control over education
policy in the state. The board member’s loyalty lies with the
governor and they can/will be removed if they don’t do his will. There is no independence. With the Superintendent of Public Instruction,
an elected official, leading a board with loyalties to another elected official,
a clear contradiction exists.
Rep. Jacob
Rosecrants, (R-Norman) has introduced a bill that proposes the Governor, Speaker
of the House and Senate President Pro Tempore get two board appointments each
instead of letting the guv have all six.
It has been proposed before and failed.
What is more realistic would be for Oklahoma voters to approve a
constitutional amendment in which the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction be an appointed position instead of an elective one. Oklahoma is one of only twelve states who
elect a State Superintendent. That would
remove the contradiction and put the sold responsibility of education policy in
the state on the shoulders of the governor.
Third, Oklahoma
parents need to take responsibility for their kid’s education. Instead of blaming government for not
schooling their children, they should take equity in teaching their offspring
the 3Rs.
For years, Oklahoma’s
education establishment solution to low test scores was; ‘give us raises and
more money.’ That hasn’t resulted in
significant improvement in scores. A
combination of parents not paying attention to their child’s education, elected
officials focused on peripheral issues, and an education establishment
unwilling to change has resulted in Oklahoma’s education subpar results.
Sensationism, hype, and puffery incite passion and emotions, but they will not improve Oklahoma’s education system. Identifying obvious deficiencies and unselfishly working together is the only way change will happen. It’s unclear if Oklahoma’s elected leaders can put their egos aside for the good of the kids. It’s more fun when drama reigns.
1 comment:
Hello, Steve.
It's good to see you being forthright about taking on the Trump agenda. Using this post, I can separate you from the "Yes, Dear Leader" Trump people and the so-called moderates who will use their conscience to buck against him when opportunity calls (see Mitch McConnell).
This post is rather interesting because it puts Oklahoma's governor, a hardline Republican, at odds with a true MAGA-living, MAGA-breathing, far-right Superintendent, who is also circumstantially a Republican. The kicker is that you, Steve, are also a Republican, and this post highlights the divide between the old guard and the clinically insane.
For clarification on my own bias, I do not like Kevin Stitt, but Ryan Walters is next level. Walters' transformation from the "cool" teacher to a crackpot who got elected to lead Oklahoma's education is mind-blowing. Walters has no business being in the position that he holds. Stitt, on the other hand, is a sideways jerk who I wouldn't trust to sell me a used car, let alone run the state of Oklahoma.
Should we be electing our superintendent? As a rule of thumb, if Oklahoma is one of twelve states doing a thing, it's a clear indication that we should not be doing that thing. In fact, I think the superintendent should be nonpartisan, as is the case in 42 other states. My children should not be educated to be in favor of one political party over another. I think both sides could agree on that.
Yes, parents should ultimately be responsible for their children's education, but children do not choose their parents. Parents can be very good or very bad at managing their children's education. Wealth can also come to play here. In this case, the child is absolutely helpless.
Have the parents graduated high school? Or college? What value do the parents place on education? Do their children get adequate medical care? Do their children get corporal punishment for low grades? Do their children get denied a meal when their grades are insufficient for the parents' standards?
There's a whole laundry list of reasons that a child could fail public school. I've heard tales of people younger than me that their childhoods were ripe with abuse and neglect, and the adults telling these tales acted as if that was normal and expected behavior. I've seen children berated by their parents for failing to learn math or reading skills. Is yelling at the children working? No. It hasn't proved effective yet.
I see your post didn't quite go that deep, Steve, so I apologize for going on a tangent. It's just that education is such a critical piece of childhood development, but people don't treat it as such.
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