Nothing illustrates the schism between the old and new Republicans better than the recent opening debate question between the candidates for state superintendent.
Ryan Walters, the current secretary of education, was appointed by Kevin in 2020 after teaching high school history and government for eight years in McAlester. April Grace is the current Shawnee Public Schools superintendent.
“The biggest issue facing our education system is left-wing indoctrination in our public schools. What we’ve seen is the far left push issues like critical race theory, transgenderism and a anti-American type curriculum into our schools that has to be rejected … We have to teach our kids that America is the greatest country in the history of the world,” Walters said.
In other words, Oklahoma students need to stop learning about the complex and complicated country that we inhabit and get back to propagandizing them. Why learn from our mistakes when we could just repeat them endlessly due to ignorance? What else is the education system for if not avoiding teaching applicable life skills but also accurate history.
“We must get serious about solving the teacher shortage in our state … [Some kids] can’t take Spanish in middle school anymore. Now they have to wait until high school because we simply don’t have the teachers to fill the spot. … The other thing is, we’ve got to get focused on Oklahoma educational outcomes. We must get back to really focusing on literacy for our early learners and then we’ve got to get serious about expanding options for our high school students,” Grace said.
Who does she think she is? A problem-solver? In this state?
Oklahoma Gazette goes to press on the eve of the primary election, but if Oklahoma’s history of its future, our bet is that Chicken-Fried News will be lambasting Walters until at least November.