The news of Oklahoma’s continued low rankings in education continues to get attention, but perhaps not the right attention.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, Gov. Kevin Stitt and many other lawmakers firmly believe that more “education choice” is needed, so they have worked vigorously to remake our education system to include taxpayer funding for private and religious education.
Additionally, they recently have pointed to the need to put religion into public education through placing Christian religious materials into schools, such as the Ten Commandments and the Bible.
What they seem to continue to ignore is the four major indicators of student success in school that need to be addressed.
These four indicators include: Do both parents live in the home; what are the education levels of parents; the economic level of the family (if a family’s income level is in the bottom one-third, that impacts a student’s chance at success); and is English the primary language spoken in the home?
So, frankly, the majority of what contributes to a student’s success is what is going on in their home life, not supposed “liberal indoctrination” in schools. And, it appears that while the political talk is about parent empowerment and parent choice, the current education leadership in the state is focusing on one set of families — those already with the most advantages.
All the positive outcomes we want in Oklahoma begin with raising healthy and resilient children.
The current legislative priorities of offering tax incentives or pushing religious propaganda in schools seem to fall short of addressing the many underlying issues that impact vulnerable families and contribute to Oklahoma’s low education rankings.