There was an uproar - a tempest in a teapot, really - the other week over new State Superintendent Ryan Walters removing portraits in a hallway at the State Department of Education building placed in recognition of a non-governmental organization's "hall of fame". Instead of using government space to laud this one group's favorite people, he wanted to use the space to honor and recognize the parents and children that the Oklahoma State Department of Education is supposed to be working for. 

Read below for some excellent context to the kerfluffle:

When reviewing the more than 100 individuals inducted into the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame since 1985, Ruth Genevieve Hudson stands out—because Hudson, inducted in 1994, is one of the very few career classroom teachers to make the cut.

While Hudson spent 45 years primarily teaching music at Sand Springs, Tulsa, and Blackwell Public Schools, as well as in the state of Kansas, her lengthy classroom service is in stark contrast to many of the other people honored in the educators’ hall.

Instead, the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame is filled with the names of politicians, union leaders, lobbyists, consultants, and individuals who worked in college settings rather than in the K-12 school system.

The hall is also filled largely with men, even though the overwhelming majority of classroom teachers are women.

“To me, it wasn’t showing respect for the classroom teachers,” said Teresa Turner, who taught school for 26 years in rural Oklahoma before retiring. “It was just showing more respect for administrators and others instead of the ones that are in the daily grind doing the work with the children.”

OSU embracing worrisome policies

There’s a reason the phrase, “It’ll never happen here,” is often filed under the category of “famous last words.”

Those who have assumed campus radicalism is concentrated in coastal universities or, in a worse-case scenario, at one particular state college, are now learning otherwise.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell announced today the appointees for the Oklahoma Golf Trail Commission, which is tasked with developing a list of golf courses to be designated as the Oklahoma Golf Trail. The Lt. Governor will serve on the commission along with Gary Bridwell, Lou Dechert, Sheila Dills, Jared Gallagher, Steve Gelnar, Charlie Hannema, David Jones, Michael Love, and Ken MacLeod. 

I was just remarking to my wife earlier today how absolutely misleading the pro-820 mailer was that came in the mail today...

(Feb. 23rd)  A large group of Oklahomans in the law enforcement community came together today to criticize the recent mailings and television advertising of Yes on 820.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved a two-part plan by Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, to provide a $500 million investment to public education and create the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Senate approved legislation Wednesday to help county election boards remove noncitizens from the state’s voter registration rolls. Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, authored Senate Bill 377 at the request of the Secretary of the State Election Board.

There seems to have been precious little as far as campaigning for or against the upcoming recreational marijuana state question (unless it's been TV... which I rarely watch). We received our first mailers on the issue in the past week, both of which from the 'Yes' side. I certainly hope the 'No' campaign gets its act together, gets the word out, and that voters reject SQ 820.

Terri White to Co-Chair Protect Our Kids NO 820

Citing her expertise in the field, former Governor Frank Keating welcomed Terri White as co-chair of Protect Our Kids NO 820 today.  “Having served in both Democrat and Republican administrations, Terri White knows substance abuse shows no partisan allegiance,” Keating stated.  “I can think of nobody in Oklahoma who knows more about this issue or who has done more to help prevent, treat and defeat the scourge of addiction in our state than Terri White.  I am honored to work with her,” Keating stated.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Bill 397 was approved by the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday. The bill, authored by Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, would require school and public libraries to label books and other materials as elementary, junior high, under 16, or juniors and seniors. After receiving these designations, the materials would be placed in their respective sections, so students are only able to access books that are appropriate for their age.

WASHINGTON, DC (Feb. 17th) – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today introduced the bicameral Women’s Public Health and Safety Act, which gives states the authority to exclude abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood, from receiving state Medicaid funds. Congressman Michael Cloud (R-TX) will introduce the same bill in the House. Under current law, states are required to allow any qualified provider to participate in a state’s Medicaid system. A non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that Planned Parenthood received nearly $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements over a three-year period, accounting for 81 percent of the abortion provider’s joint federal-state funding stream.

AG Drummond right to stand up to federal overreach

With federal overreach a constant threat, it is important that states like Oklahoma stand up and fight to control their own destiny. That’s why Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond deserves praise for threatening to sue the Biden administration if it does not withdraw a rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) that designates the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.