It took 13 years, but the chickens finally came home to roost for legislative Republicans, who handed Oklahoma governors absolute power over the State Board of Education in response to push-back from Democratic appointees against then-newly minted and wholly unqualified superintendent Janet Barresi.
At the time, GOP lawmakers were warned their fit of pique could come back to bite them. Now it has. Gov. Kevin Stitt’s ability to hire and fire board members who don’t serve his anti-public ed ideology has turned what once was a credible oversight panel into a rubber stamp that flouts state law with impunity and gives cover to wreckin’ ball Ryan Walters’ repugnant, un-American Christian nationalist impulses.
Democratic Sen. Mary Boren and Rep. Jacob Rosecrants [joined last week by Republican Rep. Mike Osburn] experienced Walters’ and the board’s hubris first-hand when they were denied access to an executive session where the board’s agenda included lyin’ Ryan’s crusade to strip state teaching licenses from his ever-expanding enemies’ list.
For this week’s Observercast –The Emperor Has No Clothes– Sen. Boren and Rep. Rosecrants join us to discuss how Walters and Co. violated state law that specifically authorizes some legislators to attend the closed-door sessions. And how the superintendent’s and board’s anti-public ed policies are sewing chaos in Oklahoma’s K-12 schools as three-quarters of a million-plus students, teachers and staff prepare to launch the 2024-25 academic year.
The Emperor Has No Clothes