Michael Phillips for Tulsa school board District 7

There are two Tulsa school board seats up for election on April 7, 2026. Voters on the southern edge of the Tulsa Public Schools district have the opportunity to elect an experienced educator to become the second conservative Republican on the board to push for accountability, transparency, and real education. Michael Phillips, running for Tulsa Public Schools Office 7, is retired from twenty-two years as a high school math teacher in Tulsa Public Schools. Phillips's assignments included Central and Edison High Schools. He is also a founder of and leader in the Tulsa County Republican Men's Club. On his website, Phillips explains his reasons for running and his goals for his work as a board member.

Michael and his wife have attended virtually every school board meeting in person starting the summer of 2022. Michael observed that the vast majority of the agenda items (including spending hundreds of millions of dollars) were passed with little or no public discussion. Thus, the public remained unaware of the pluses and minuses of how the money was being used. It looked like the board was simply rubber stamping what the administration had already decided to do. That worried Michael. The worry grew and he decided to run for a seat at the table. If elected he pledges to press for: (1) options the board can openly discuss (2) agenda items that allow the board to fulfill its duty of setting the vision for the district (3) the ability to temporarily postpone portions of the agenda to a date certain so that the board can investigate the usefulness of the items for educating children He pledges to serve his constituents by soliciting and reporting their input, making the successful education of children the primary concern, and using his judgment when voting.

On his campaign Facebook page, Michael Phillips addresses a number of issues in short videos, including the importance of respect for teachers from administration and students as a factor in teacher retention and why the board needs to direct more money to the classroom and less to administrative overhead. Phillips has been walking his district since before the new year, through all kinds of weather, and with the help of supporters like State Sen. and legendary TU football coach Dave Rader. Congressman Kevin Hern has endorsed Michael Phillips's run for school board. Phillips is running to unseat Democrat incumbent Susan Lamkin, who has been a rubber stamp for the TPS administration and TPS's rampant and wasteful spending on consultants at the behest of the local philanthroparchy, who use strings-attached "donations" to dictate school policy. Lamkin has received three reported donations: $3,500 from Lynn Schusterman; $1,000 from Steve Mitchell, CEO of Argonaut, George Kaiser's private equity fund (remember Solyndra?); and $500 from Fred Dorwart, attorney for George Kaiser's network of businesses and organizations. The same bunch funded her very pricey 2022 campaign. A vote for Lamkin is a vote to let these left-wing philanthropocrats continue to use Tulsa Public Schools as a guinea pig for their social experiments. (Campaign contribution and expenditure reports can be found by searching on the Oklahoma Ethics Commission local campaign filings page. Sorry, no permalinks.) I'm grateful to have had E'Lena Ashley on the school board these past four years, and I'm hopeful that she will be re-elected. If we also get Michael Phillips elected, we'll have two conservative Republicans on the board who can collaborate and support one another as they seek to hold the TPS administration accountable and begin to align the district with sound fiscal and educational policy.
- March 30, 2026 at 10:58PM
Michael Phillips for Tulsa school board District 7
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