Senator Kyle Loveless
Oklahoma City School Superintendent Rob Neu says that Oklahoma lawmakers are a bigger threat than poverty and Senator Kyle Loveless writes a pointed response to Neu: “Not a good way to have a good working relationship by being this critical, in my opinion,” Loveless says.
What did Neu say that offended Loveless?
“The greatest threat to Oklahoma public education is the people elected to represent Oklahomans and Oklahoma’s children,” Neu writes. He also suggest that the Oklahoma Legislature poses a greater threat than the federal government.
These remarks by Neu, a recent Seattle transplant, may not be well received from Oklahomans, especially rural lawmakers.
But Neu’s criticism was couched in the middle of an op-ed piece that led by praising the nine Oklahoma State House Education Committee legislators who had killed a private voucher bill. The irony? Many of these legislators were the same who passed the controversial delay of AP History.
Though overshadowed by Rep. Dan Fisher’s legislation on AP History, the private voucher bill has fired the rhetoric hot throughout the week.
A former Wisconsin Assembly speaker encouraged school choice coalitions to fire off emails defining the Oklahoma’s Republican lawmakers opposed to vouchers as “liberals.”
Wisconsin’s controversial Scottt Jensen suggested that if Speaker Jeff Hickman couldn’t instill discipline, then he and the reform groups would have to take it upon themselves to do it. Here’s a link to the complete article, written by Neu, that has caused the weekend war of words: http://newsok.com/articl/5395197?fb_ref=Default
“The proof is in the pudding” — If public education had addressed the needs of the children, their community, and their future, vouchers would not have even become an issue!!!!
I think it would be wise to get some work done before engaging in a battle of words in which the whole education system (children, community, state, and society) will be the loser.