Tulsa World Endorses Hofmeister

We don’t disagree that there are things in Oklahoma’s public school system in need of change. The state needs more rigorous standards, greater accountability, better funding and better results.

But from Day 1 Barresi’s efforts have been the leadership of divisiveness, not the leadership of reform, and the result has been much conflict and few results.

Consistently, she has chosen confrontation over cooperation. She has feuded with teachers, school board members, superintendents, legislators, reporters and anyone who would question her.

Any new public official can be forgiven some missteps, but Barresi’s record is one of repeated errors and an unwillingness to accept responsibility.

The out-of-state testing firm she endorsed to run Oklahoma’s high-stakes testing botched the job last year. Barresi negotiated a settlement, and recommended staying with the firm, which botched the program again this year.

When school superintendents and scholars questioned the validity of her plans for an A-F grading system for schools and districts, she pronounced the experts anti-reform and bulled ahead. The resulting grades created high anxiety, but little useable information for parents.

Earlier this year in what smelled like electioneering, Barresi called for giving every teacher a $2,000 raise, but she wanted to pay for it with an ill-considered plan that experienced education finance experts said would put districts at financial risk and reflected a lack of understanding of basic school finance. It was the sort of thing that school administrators could have explained to her, if she had been willing to listen.

When conservative legislators said Barresi’s third-grade reading mandate was too punitive and took authority away from parents and local school officials, she resisted revision. In a sign that Barresi has lost the confidence of her own party’s leadership, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved the change anyway, which Barresi pronounced “pathetic.”

We could cite other examples, but we prefer to look forward at this point.

We don’t oppose conservative, high-expectation, reformist change for the state education agenda. Indeed, we think that’s precisely what the state desperately needs.

But that reform must lead to results, not just furor. The problem here isn’t philosophy, it’s leadership. Janet Barresi isn’t the right leader for Oklahoma’s public school system.

Not surprisingly, several candidates have stepped forward to oppose Barresi. The best alternative in the Republican primary is Tulsan Joy Hofmeister.

Hofmeister is a parent, a former public school teacher and a businesswoman.

She and her husband have four children who attended Jenks schools from kindergarten through graduation.

She is a career educator. She runs a small business and is trained in international curricula for math and reading. She sonn will complete work on her master’s degree in education policy and law.

But Hofmeister’s most important qualification is in her personality, not her resume.

She is a team-builder. She treats friends and critics with respect and will listen to the input of parents, teachers, administrators, legislators and community leaders — even those to disagree with her.

In short, she is a problem-solver, not a problem-maker. The contrast is obvious.

Janet Barresi has had her chance. She should be shown the door. In the June 24 primary, we hope Republican voters will resolve the issue for the state and nominate Joy Hofmeister.