Danger! Danger!

Ryan Walters is a cruel little man intent on destroying education, the driver of economics and democracy, in Oklahoma. He’s also unfit for the job he holds. For proof, his latest notable quote is that only “an unserious person” would blame poverty for student performance in school.

To be fair, poverty isn’t the only impediment to learning. But that it is an impediment is settled fact.

I’ve written before about a fifth-grade student whom I will call John. As everyone, perhaps except the superintendent, knows, teachers do a variety of jobs at school. When I wasn’t cleaning lunchroom tables so we could seat the next wave of students in the lunchroom, I oversaw the students who had lunch detention. John showed up almost daily.

John was pleasant, and he wanted to talk. As we worked through his late homework and missing papers, the reason he was denied his lunch recess, we conversed.

You find out a lot when you listen to your students.

One day, John said, “I hope the electricity is back on when I get home.” 

The electricity had been off for several days because of nonpayment.

On another day, he said they were sleeping on a friend’s couch because they got booted out of their house for not paying rent.

Mr. Walters, it’s hard to keep up with your homework when you don’t have electricity or are not sure where you will be sleeping at night. And that just addresses homework.

How about the stress that keeps a student from focusing in class? How about hunger? And before you start blaming deadbeat parents, perhaps you should know more about John. What his situation was became clear shortly after report cards came out. Our work during the lunch hour was paying off, and John passed every class.

“Mom was so happy she did circles in her wheelchair and gave me a high five,” he said.

Excellent public education can address a lot of the ills of society, but addressing the ills of society can improve the results of a good public education.

Good schools teach students how to think, not what to think. Reading books and understanding history will benefit students’ thinking skills. So would a good free lunch program. Hungry kids can’t think any better than stressed kids, and often these two impediments ride together on a student’s back, a load no kid should have to carry.

Ryan Walters is dangerous. I give you the words from his mouth – that poverty shouldn’t be blamed for school failure and that race had nothing to do with the burning of Greenwood – as evidence. Add the bomb scares caused by his doctored TikTok video.

Aren’t these enough for the Oklahoma Legislature to do its job and remove this man from office?