The McCarville Report presents the 2018 Primary Primer series. These features will take a look at the nomination races for the statewide elected seats. We are taking an excerpt from each candidate’s website (or social media account/public statements if they don’t have a website) and adding a link back to the candidate’s page. The candidates appear in the order they are listed on the Oklahoma State Election Board’s List of Elections.
Remember to vote in the June 26, 2018 Oklahoma primary elections.
Will Farrell
Will Farrell lives in the Tulsa area and is a legal assistant and graduate student. Farrell is looking to focus on fiscal responsibility, teacher empowerment and improving performance. He provided a quick summary of his philosophy about the role of public education in Oklahoma to the voter information website, vote411.org.
http://www.vote411.org/
The heart of my philosophy is the importance of being earnest. Public education in Oklahoma must be a priority, and must foster respect, trust, empowerment, efficacy, legitimacy, discipline, and development of the people in our great state.
We must safeguard fiscal responsibility to ensure that we have a balanced budget, and to ensure that we are not wasting our time, energy, and resources. We must empower our teachers and communities to allow our children to be children, and to grow into future success stories. We must honor the core of our codified constitutional commitments to public education, and transcend our current standards to make Oklahoma a Top 10 state for education, potential, and opportunity.
Linda Murphy
Linda Murphy is an educator who specialized in special education. She also served as Governor Keating’s Secretary of Education. She has run for Superintendent of Public Instruction previously. Murphy’s Policy of Education Excellence uses the acronym LEARN for Local control, Education excellence, Academic standards, Return funds to classroom and Now. Her thoughts on local control are below with a link to the rest on her website.
L – Local Control
Those closest to students know them best and can make the best decisions regarding their educational needs, testing, curriculum, and placement.
Local School Boards are elected by the people. They have the responsibility to oversee their own school and must have the authority to make local decisions. The State Board should not be overriding local board decisions.
Nationalized testing takes away local control. It centralizes the control not only of the tests but also the curriculum which must align. If curriculum does not align with the test, students fail because they have not been taught what they are tested on. The National control of the test which we have right now under Superintendent Hofmeister will control curriculum which must align.
Student Individual Data should not be shared. It should be preserved in the local school and used only for the student’s benefit and not as part of a system built to serve business as the top priority. The goal of our public education system must be to provide the best education possible for each child and that can only be accomplished through Local Control.
You can find the rest of Murphy’s plan here.
Joy Hofmeister
http://www.joyforoklahoma.com/
Joy Hofmeister is the incumbent. Under her current term, she has led the State Education Department to develop, Oklahoma’s Edge, an eight year plan for public education. Hofmeister is a former teacher as well. She was quoted by Oklahoma Watch’s Jennifer Palmer in her story, “Surprise Candidates Challenge Hofmeister in Superintendent’s Race” on April 19, 2018, saying in the wake of years of budget cuts rebuilding public education is important.
“After a decade of crippling cuts and unprecedented shortages, our fight to rebuild public education has new momentum. Oklahoma kids and teachers deserve the investment and resources needed to succeed in classrooms all across this state,” Hofmeister said. “We can’t stop now. ”
You can read the entire Oklahoma Watch story here.
I searched in vain for any endorsement of letting parents choose the best schools for their own kids. The closest is Will Farrell’s wanting us to be a top 10 state in “education, potential and opportunity.” Opportunity and potential lie at the root of the school choice movement, and maybe that’s what he’s talking about. The other two continue to worship at the shrine of the sclerotic public school system, which will continue its slow, downward trajectory unless private schools and charter schools are unleashed to provide the competition necessary to force the “public schools” to reform themselves.