Analysis: In Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale, an emperor parades through town wearing magnificent clothes that do not exist. Everyone can see the truth, but nobody wants to say it. Finally, a child announces the obvious: the emperor has no clothes.
I thought about that story while listening to Tulsa Public Schools explain why it must close 17 schools, displace nearly 5,000 students, and reorganize much of the district.
Analysis: Seventeen Tulsa Public Schools. That’s how many schools the Tulsa Public Schools Board voted to close Monday night. Nearly one-quarter of the district’s schools. One out of every four. That’s not a minor administrative adjustment. That’s an institutional earthquake.
I spoke at Monday night’s Board meeting and asked a question that every Tulsa taxpayer, parent, and homeowner ought to be asking: How did this district get into such a colossal mess?
Analysis: With millions of missing money still under investigation, the Tulsa Public School District (TPS) Board of Education Monday voted to approve a staff proposal to close or consolidate 14 elementary schools, two middle schools and one alternative program beginning with the 2027-28 school year.
The decision came after a short series of public meetings in which parents, grandparents, teachers, state legislators, education specialists (including a candidate for State School Superintendent), and citizens spoke against the plan. Public comment at the final meeting was respectful, reasoned, and at times tearful as they begged District officials to delay or reject what they considered a deeply faulted school disaster.
Records show the Biden White House and Justice Department pushed for a federal “hook” to prosecute parents and charge those protesting lockdown mandates and deviancy in schools with federal crimes.
October 5, the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group issued a report detailing how Biden Administration officials at the Department of Justice explored avenues to prosecute parents and protestors who spoke to school boards and school officials.
The report focuses on the production and circulation of an October 4, 2021 memorandum sent from Attorney General Merrick Garland to the Director of the FBI, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, the Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and United States Attorneys.
As policymakers seek to improve the poor academic outcomes in Oklahoma’s public schools, strengthening teachers’ ability to maintain discipline will be a key component of that effort.
State Rep. Rob Hall, R-Tulsa, recently led a legislative study exploring that challenge and declared, “A well-ordered classroom is a precondition of effective instruction. It is the foundation upon which all other educational activities are built. Because when chaos reigns in a classroom, both teaching and learning become exponentially more difficult, if not impossible.”
