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OKLAHOMA CITY – When supporters of State Question 779 gathered at the state Capitol on June 24 to promote passage of the ballot initiative, commonly known as the Boren penny tax, one parent lamented her financial inability to send her children and grandchildren to private school.

At a private school in a secluded, somewhat upscale backstreet in northwest Oklahoma City, children are arriving to begin their day. Class sizes are small; there are about 16 children in each class. This school is exclusive; its daily capacity is 58 students. It has turned away hundreds more in the last few years.

Oklahoma’s education blob—school unions, education schools, and their allies—is becoming unusually shameless in its determination to vote itself another taxpayer bailout. Of course the blob is always on the lookout for another hustle. But in Oklahoma this year, things are getting to a point that might make even Donald Trump blush.

Critics of school choice policies – such as vouchers, tax credits and education savings accounts – love to claim that school choice is for the rich. But what about an ordinary child for whom changing schools could literally mean the difference between life and death? That’s the case with some parents in Oklahoma City who have chosen to enroll their children at Mission Academy High School, operated by the nonprofit Teen Recovery Solutions.

We all have opinions about how to make public schools better. Some want to spend more money, even to the point of increasing taxes. Others favor reforms like school choice. We are entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts. Unfortunately, some important facts have been hard to find – until now.

Oklahoma’s budget crunch has been much in the news lately. But imagine how much worse the situation could be.

Oklahoma has embraced the national revolution of educational choice—it’s one of 30 states with private school choice programs. As the state has now moved to embrace the best kind of school choice, Education Savings Accounts, government unions and their allies have howled all the louder that choice is awful. But if that’s so, why do they have to keep running away from the facts? What are they afraid of?

When the Board of Education that governs Oklahoma City Public Schools recently voted to sever ties with Superintendent Rob Neu, there was much media speculation about why. After all, the board had welcomed Neu less than two years earlier and voted to pay him $240,000, plus a hefty $65,000 in benefits. It’s an understatement to say that Neu’s tenure has been filled with turmoil. For example, Neu hastily led the district in revamping its student disciplinary system. Neu gleefully reported that student suspensions were down. Unfortunately, a survey of district teachers showed that classroom chaos was up.

Want to hurt kids? Put state bureaucrats in charge of evaluating the schools in school choice programs.

We hear a lot of talk these days about popular anger at elites. This rage has surprised not a few of our leaders. They, including the members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, were especially shocked by the popular revulsion at the Court’s Ten Commandments decision. We witnessed a genuine “pitchfork” moment, where ordinary people are outraged by policies imposed on them by elites and moved to loudly say so.