Tag Archives: Education Tulsa

Fixing Oklahoma Education

By David Arnett

It was a simple declaration to the Tulsa County Republican Men’s Club (TRMC) that first got the crowd chuckling. At a deeper level, Dr. James Taylor illustrated the struggle in our state education system. Wednesday July 8, as a candidate for the office of Oklahoma State Superintendent, Dr. James Taylor said that contrary to his critics’ assertions, “I am actually not a white Christian nationalist.”

To a broad group of racially and age mixed mostly conservative men and women, Dr. Taylor framed parents — not the state, school districts, or churches — as the primary owners of a child’s education. Further Dr. Taylor argues that classroom transparency and parental notification are non-negotiable as are literacy and math, with specific pushes for phonics, cursive writing, and insistence on grade-level reading.

Dr. James Taylor in Tulsa July 8, 2026
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The Road Not Taken Twice

By Dr. Rebecca Pellam

Forty years ago, Oklahoma learned a hard lesson about local power without oversight. Some now want its schools to return to a system it once abandoned for a reason.

In the early 1980s, the FBI ran an undercover operation in Oklahoma called OKSCAM. What it uncovered was a public corruption scandal remarkable for its sheer scale: at least 230 convictions touching 60 of the state’s 77 counties, all tied to a tidy and depressingly simple scheme (Holloway & Meyers, 1992). Suppliers padded invoices for road-building materials. Commissioners signed off. Kickbacks flowed back. Rinse and repeat.

It is tempting to file OKSCAM under “bad people taking advantage of the system,” close the report, and move on. That is the comfortable reading, and it is the wrong one. The reason it is wrong has very little to do with roads. It is a lesson about what happens when public money is spent where no one independent can see it — and four decades later, that lesson is being relearned in Oklahoma’s public schools.

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‘Bell to Bell, No Cell’ Bill Now Law

By Staff Report

Governor Kevin Stitt recently signed into law a permanent, statewide “Bell to Bell, No Cell” policy, delivering on a commitment he has championed to get phones out of Oklahoma classrooms.

The new law requires Oklahoma school districts to adopt policies prohibiting student cell phone use on campus during the school day, with common sense exceptions for emergencies and documented medical needs.

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Educator Launch & Mentorship Initiative

By Staff Report

The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has launched the Oklahoma Educator Launch & Mentorship Initiative this week, a new statewide program designed to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention by providing first-year educators with intensive training, year-long mentorship and financial support.

The initiative includes a five-day Summer Launch Institute scheduled for July 27–31, 2026, followed by a structured mentorship program that pairs first-year teachers with experienced educators throughout the school year. 

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Local Control in High School Activities

By David Arnett

Friday Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 2153 into law, opening the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s (OSSAA) decisions to public inspection and ending the penalizing of student athletes for transferring schools.

“I’ve heard too many stories of students who did everything right to transfer, only to be sidelined by an unelected, unaccountable activities association,” said Governor Stitt. “No student’s chance to be a part of an activity should depend on whether their parents can afford an attorney. This law puts families, not bureaucracies, at the center.”

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