Tulsa World
“We’re trying to fix the bill,” state Rep. Dan Fisher, R-Yukon, told The Oklahoman on Wednesday. “It was very poorly worded and was incredibly ambiguous, and we didn’t realize that, so it’s been misinterpreted. We’re going to clear it up so folks will know exactly what we’re trying to accomplish and it’s not to hurt AP. We’re very supportive of the AP program.”
Good. This is a very bad bill and would set an awful precedent.. The huge negative response by many individuals and organizations shows that numbers of messages do count and concerned citizens can have an impact. This Legislature seems to want to control what is taught and how it is taught in public schools. Few legislators are qualified to make decisions on such educational concerns.
There seems to be a lot of ‘rewrites’ and claims of ‘misunderstanding’ concerning a lot of legislation introduced this year. Fisher, Kern, Murphy (not the good Murphy) among others appear to be victims of a couple of possible handicaps:
1. They don’t have a decent comprehension of the English language in order to express exactly what they mean in the legislation. Perhaps a course in basic English followed by an AP English class would help them get it right the first time.
2. They decided to withdraw to bill due to ‘bad timing’, ‘bad publicity’, bad etc. Perhaps they are letting public opinion determine what they think is right, which makes one think maybe they don’t stand behind their oratory.
Either way, we the public benefit from these political retreats. Multiple lawsuits will be avoided by placing these proposals where they belong.