Articles
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Education
State Board of Education tackles teacher misconduct
The Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) is working aggressively to address new reports of educator misconduct while also reaching into the past to ensure teachers who violate children lose their certifications through the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE).Catherine Smith | April 4, 2024
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Education
Local voters can choose president but not school board?
As Oklahoma state lawmakers discuss legislation to shift school-board elections to November general-election ballots, opponents have raised an unconventional argument: while local voters may be qualified to cast a vote for president of the United States, they are not qualified to select school-board members in their own community.Ray Carter | April 4, 2024
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Education
Parents rally for school-board election change
Voter turnout in this week’s local school board elections was (again) so low as to almost defy belief. Many Oklahomans are ready to move these elections to November.Ray Carter | April 3, 2024
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Education
Oklahoma senators target special-needs discrimination
Parents of special-needs students in districts such as Yukon, Muskogee, Millwood, Medford, Pawnee, and Wynona report satisfaction with their involvement in the process—unlike districts such as Deer Creek, Edmond, Piedmont, Jenks, Lawton, Norman, and Moore.Ray Carter | April 2, 2024
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Education, Culture & the Family
Queer activist calls for keeping Oklahoma parents in the dark about child’s mental health
A left-wing activist in Oklahoma is urging state officials to no longer require teachers to notify parents of information related to their child’s mental health.Ray Carter | March 28, 2024
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Education
Obscure election dates undermine parents’ influence
With voter turnout averaging only 4 percent for Oklahoma’s local school-board elections, school officials pay no penalty for being indifferent to the needs of the families they are supposed to serve.Jonathan Small | March 25, 2024
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Education
Public schools serve all children? Oklahoma parents find that’s not so
Horror stories abound of Oklahoma public school employees discriminating against special-needs students. Adding insult to injury, parents see their tax dollars used to hire lobbyists to oppose them.Ray Carter | March 25, 2024
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Education
School-choice program improvements easily advance
Bills making the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax program easier for families to access, and weed out potential abuse of the program, have easily advanced from both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature.Ray Carter | March 14, 2024
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Education
School choice coda: Let them lick toes
Right now, school board elections are dominated by school employees and other insiders, with tiny turnouts that protect their power. Let's move school board elections to the normal election cycle so that normal voters participate.Trent England | March 13, 2024
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Education
Senators vote to restrict school virtual days
Members of the Oklahoma Senate have voted overwhelmingly to limit brick-and-mortar schools’ use of virtual days to emergency situations, saying children need as much in-person learning as possible.Ray Carter | March 12, 2024