Slow Learner? Or Unbridled Hubris?
When it comes to politics, Gov. Kevin Stitt has a tin ear.
Some of this is to be expected, of course. Before deciding to seek public office for the first time, Stitt rarely even bothered to vote. Once elected, his inexperience showed. He seemed unable to grasp such basics as government’s built-in separation of powers.
Five years later, alas, Stitt shows little evidence of growth.
He’s still picking unnecessary fights with the state’s tribal nations [the latest involving vehicle license plates]. He still thinks he can order the Legislature into special session to do what he wants [remember his tax cut demands last summer?]. And he still operates as if news conferences and social media posts are equivalent to face-to-face conversations with legislative leaders who have the real power to get things done.
That Stitt keeps making elementary mistakes in political leadership suggests … what exactly? Slow learner? Unadulterated hubris?
Both were on display in the recently when he bungled the rollout of a program he championed – the Parental Choice Tax Credit Act – and when he signed an executive order aimed at eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in state agencies and higher education.
while urging families to sign up for the new $5,000-$7,500 tax credits, Stitt disclosed he, too, would apply because he has three children in private school. “Every little bit helps,” he told Oklahoma Watch, especially when one is scrambling to keep a family afloat on a spartan gubernatorial salary – a mere $147,000 annually [more than double the state’s $63,440 median income in 2022].
That nonsense hit the fan – fast.
First, the governor’s wages don’t look too shabby to workaday Oklahomans – 15.7% of whom live in poverty, the nation’s 8th highest rate. Second, isn’t it unethical for the governor to immediately benefit from a tax credit he signed into law? Third, who believes mortgage magnate Stitt is struggling to make ends meet? He lives in Oklahoma County’s swanky, gated Oak Tree neighborhood because the historic Governor’s Mansion isn’t up to his standards.
Cue the about-face.
Stitt quickly reversed course and announced he won’t be applying, after all. Why? Well, let’s just say it’s not a good look for a wealthy governor to soak up taxpayer funds that were supposed to give poorer families opportunities to move their kids from struggling public schools to supposedly higher-performing private schools.
So then, the tone deaf guv decided he needed to change the subject, reviving the culture war against DEI by acting to block state agencies from using state funds to support such initiatives.
Why this? Why now? Stitt and state Superintendent Ryan Walters already had DEI in their sights, demanding higher ed, for example, provide detailed reporting on such programs and their costs.
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education found that about $10.2 million was spent on such efforts over the past decade. That’s just three-tenths of 1% of all higher ed spending. The equivalent of a rounding error.
Stitt left most of the DEI wailing and gnashing this year to Walters. Perhaps he now resents that Walters all-too-often hogs the headlines. Or maybe the guv hopes a new anti-DEI broadside will boost his bookings on One America News Network and other rightwing outlets.
The reality is, Stitt hasn’t delivered much to help workaday Oklahomans.
It’s quite likely that most claiming the private school tax credits already had their kids in private schools; that’s certainly been the experience in other states [see: Arizona]. And attacking DEI doesn’t do anything except risk federal funds for vital state programs and make the state look like a backwater.
Will this governor ever learn his lessons?