Opinion: “There is no reason a child cannot read before they are in third grade,” former State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in 2019. “But our teachers have to teach based on the science of reading, and that is not happening across this state. It is happening in pockets.”
While I disagreed with Hofmeister on many issues, I give her credit where credit is due: She spoke a hard truth about the severity of Oklahoma’s reading crisis.
The problem persists. And it is unacceptable.
Yesterday in a memorandum to the Secretary of Education, President Donald J. Trump has officially directed adherence to the Supreme Court of the United States that “has definitively held that consideration of race in higher education admissions violates students’ civil rights.”
Further, “the persistent lack of available data — paired with the rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies — continues to raise concerns about whether race is actually used in practice. Greater transparency is essential to exposing unlawful practices and ultimately ridding society of shameful, dangerous racial hierarchies.“
State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced Friday in a media release, the transformative shift in Oklahoma’s approach to student assessment, marking the end of traditional statewide summative assessments (testing).
Beginning in the 2025–2026 school year, the Oklahoma State Department of Education will allow districts to use approved benchmark assessments in place of the current high-stakes end-of-year tests for grades 3–8 in Math and English Language Arts.
On Monday, August 4, 2025, Second Lady Usha Vance traveled to Houston, Texas, where she visited with over two hundred Space Center Houston “Space Campers” and children of NASA employees for a day filled with out-of-this-world activities, reading, and adventure.
Ms. Vance was joined by astronaut Suni Williams. Together, they read Margaret and the Moon to highlight the Second Lady’s Summer Reading Challenge and the science behind space travel.
Editor’s Notes: The following investigative work detailing the disgrace of the OKC based NonDoc.com was first published on Substack and is published here with permission by the author. Further, in a release Sunday, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Oklahoma State Department of Education wrote:
As I lead the charge for a bold overhaul of education in Oklahoma, putting parents back in control, rejecting radical agendas, and demanding excellence: it’s no surprise to face politically motivated attacks.
Any suggestion that a device of mine was used to stream inappropriate content on the television set is categorically false. I have no knowledge of what was on the TV screen during the alleged incident, and there is absolutely no truth to any implication of wrongdoing.
These falsehoods are the desperate tactics of a broken establishment afraid of real change. They aren’t just attacking me, they’re attacking the values of the Oklahomans who elected me to challenge the status quo.
I will not be distracted. My focus remains on making Oklahoma the best state in the nation, in every category.
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