Oklahoma Joe: Time for a curtain call on schoolhouse drama

We don’t need the drama.

The school year has kicked off with meetings, classes and more meetings. Most teachers have worked during the summer on various projects and pursuits to improve themselves or their students.

But a crisis in common education is creating drama on multiple levels. University of Oklahoma President Joseph Harroz Jr. put it succinctly when he spoke recently to the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce’s “2024 State of the Schools.”

When we’re trying to attract world-class talent to come to OU in faculty and staff, they look at the education system here in K through 12 for their families. And they don’t want to see drama, and they don’t want to see an education system that doesn’t give their kids the best opportunity to be successful. So, it is critical that K through 12 works in this state.”

According to KOCO.com and The Journal Record , Harroz’s speech was generally positive and pointed to improvement to access to higher education and willingness to work with employers on workforce shortages. Harroz pointed to low numbers as being a problem, especially for students who aren’t ready for college. Oklahoma, among its many low rankings in education, ranks 43 ^rd in the country in ACT testing.

As for what he meant by “drama,” OU wouldn’t say, but we can guess. The state Department of Education seemed to have its own take, according to KOCO, in this statement:

“Superintendent (Ryan) Walters agrees that the drama caused by years of teachers unions’ dominance of our education system has set our state back. That’s why he will not bow to the woke mob, and is rapidly getting Oklahoma schools Back to Basics and back on track. The liberal media shouldn’t create drama by sensationalizing common sense reforms that benefit our schools and our students.”

In one statement, the education department perpetuates drama by name-calling and using labels and phrases such as “woke mob,” “liberal media” and “sensationalizing.”

Thus, anyone who suggests that they don’t agree with the education department is automatically labeled as part of the “woke mob” or worse.

A recent drama, and there have been many, came when Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller expressed concern about the education department’s handling of federal funds. For doing so, the state superintendent labeled Miller as a “liar” and “clown,” according to the Tulsa World . This is the same person who had earlier called teacher unions “terrorist organizations.” And he basically called Edmond Superintendent Angela Grunewald a liar when her district challenged the banning of two books that he deemed as “pornography.” In the end, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in favor of Grunewald and the Edmond district.

Now Republicans lawmakers and Republicans are questioning his leadership, and House Speaker Charles McCall, a Republican, heeded calls to investigate state education “spending concerns.” Other Republicans have called for his impeachment. Walters responded by calling out his fellow Republicans for their “baseless lie after baseless lie,” according to The Oklahoman , and challenged the House to impeach him.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, and his office also are looking into the education department’s handling of public information under the Oklahoma Open Records Act and its board’s apparent “willful violation” of executive sessions under the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. According to NonDoc, a survey with an open-ended question seeking description of the state superintendent in “as many or as few words as you’d like” yielded 72.2 percent negative opinions from the surveyed Republicans.

So, are all these Republicans part of the “woke mob,” too?

When reviewing this crisis, the drama seems to originate from one place.

Our teachers don’t need it at the start of the school year or anytime. We don’t either.

Joe Hight is director and a member of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, an editor who led a Pulitzer Prize-winning project, the journalism ethics chair at the University of Central Oklahoma, president/owner of Best of Books, author of “Unnecessary Sorrow” and lead writer/editor of “Our Greatest Journalists.”

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