After the election on November 4th, will we then need to defend the independently-elected position of Superintendent of Public Instruction? No matter who wins the race to fill it, the answer is most likely, yes. Continue reading Why We Will Need to Defend the Office of State Superintendent
The race for Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction took a negative turn about two weeks ago after having been a pretty classy campaign until then. Continue reading Campaign Attack Blog Reveals Ugly Attitudes Toward Educating the Poor
First, let’s acknowledge that those school A-F rankings that came out this week are bogus, and both candidates clearly say so.
Second, let’s also acknowledge that the drastic drop in rankings for so many schools after Barresi’s primary loss shows just how the Barresi-led OKSDE has been jiggering the grades all along. Leading up the election? The scores keep improving. Barresi’s point is, well, we are doing great! These reforms are kicking in and we can see it, even though there is room for improvement.
But now, the point she’s making is: These public school leaders who didn’t support me? What do they know? Look how dumb they are! They are doing just awful, aren’t they? They should have listened to me.
So now those bogus grades are out, and the two candidates for State Superintendent were expected to make statements, which they did in print, but also on camera for Tulsa TV station KTUL.
A closer look at those videos, one after the other, show some interesting contrasts.
Continue reading Hofmeister’s “Have-to”s Leave Even More Questions
Earlier this week I featured Dr. Freda Deskin’s answers to questions that I suggested in two earlier posts: The 3 Education Questions We Should Ask all Candidates for Public Office; and, Necessary Questions for Oklahoma Supt of Schools Candidates .
She is in a Democratic Party Primary Runoff race with Dr. John Cox. 
He has responded to those same questions, and has some interesting answers. Some of those answers diverge significantly from Deskin’s.
I have included all questions from each blog post for readability. These are Cox’s answers as sent to me on Thursday, July 24th.
Continue reading Cox Responds to Questions About Charters, ALEC, Campaign Finances