Category Archives: Education

If competition is good for education, how about the police?

Police and community
We expect the police to be close to the population that they serve to create order and peace. Photo Credit: class M planet via Compfight cc

If competition would improve public education, would it also improve police services?

Certainly with issues of public policing continuing to rise throughout the U.S. from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, the question about how to improve policing is rising along with concerns.

But we have not heard much of anything about creating private competition for publicly-funded police departments as a way of improving them.

If, as school choice advocates maintain, competition is good and transformative for public services like education, why not for the police?
Continue reading If competition is good for education, how about the police?

Oklahoma’s Poor Need Much More than Charters Can Give

charter school oklahoma city
What was once Harding High School in Okla. City Public Schools is now Harding Charter Preparatory High School, authorized by the district.| Photo by Brett Dickerson

There has been a surge of anti-public-education talk in the past several weeks. Why?

Legislation to allow the governments of Tulsa and Oklahoma City to establish their own charter schools has come back to life as an amendment to another bill in the Oklahoma Legislature.

And the bill’s promoters want to make their case that the two biggest urban districts in the state are horrible, dystopic places that deserve abandonment instead of support and renewal. Continue reading Oklahoma’s Poor Need Much More than Charters Can Give

Book Review: Our City, Our Kids — by Ben Felder

New Ben Felder Book


The concluding two sentences in Ben Felder’s new book Our City, Our Kids is an unmistakable commitment to public schools in Oklahoma City:

Any Failure in the Oklahoma City Public School district is our failure as a community and city. These are our schools, and these are our kids.

A prolific journalist covering everything in the core of Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Gazette reporter has used his extensive knowledge of Oklahoma City Public Schools to fashion a very efficient 50 page book that succeeds as a quick source of information and a call to action for residents of the central part of the Oklahoma City metro.

The key question that he addresses is this: What should residents of the central part of Oklahoma City know, think, and do about their school district whether they have children or not? Continue reading Book Review: Our City, Our Kids — by Ben Felder

The Hostile Workplace of Teachers

school as a positive space
When we think of “school” we want to think of a positive space. Photo Credit: Barrett.Discovery via Compfight cc

For most of us parents, the first impression that we have of school is that it is a warm, welcoming place. It’s because that first impression comes from viewing the Kindergarten class on an occasional basis when our children first start school. Continue reading The Hostile Workplace of Teachers

OK House Ed Comm Dismantles Sloppy “Predator” Bill

Ok Legislature, Biggs, Virgin, Canady
Representatives Virgin (L) and Cannady ask Rep. Scott Biggs questions about SB 301 Monday, March 30 |Photos by Brett Dickerson

OKLAHOMA CITY — It was a tough Monday morning for Oklahoma Rep. Scott Biggs (R-Dist. 51) as he tried to sell SB 301 to skeptical GOP and Democratic House members in the Education Committee*.

The bill is intended to establish a dedicated investigator of the state Board of Education to make sure that teachers suspected of being “sexual predators” can’t move from one school district to another when legal prosecutions fall apart.

But the committee wasn’t buying it — not even the Republicans.

Continue reading OK House Ed Comm Dismantles Sloppy “Predator” Bill

Do Okla Board of Ed Members Need their Own Investigator?

Barresi, Ford, SDE, Board of Education
Amy Ford (R) looks on June 6, 2014, as then SDE chief Janet Barresi reads a statement after having been defeated in the primary. Photo by Brett Dickerson

In an unusual turn of events, some members of the Oklahoma Board of Education are promoting legislation that would give them their own investigator who would be under their control. Continue reading Do Okla Board of Ed Members Need their Own Investigator?

Are Okla GOP Politicians Still For a Strong Supt?

Joy Hofmeister, Superintendent, education, tests,
Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction
Photo by Brett Dickerson

There are Republican politicians in Oklahoma. And then, there is that Republican politician. You know — that Joy Hofmeister.

She’s the Republican who primaried and beat Janet Barresi, incumbent Republican sweetheart of the public school bashing bandwagon. Continue reading Are Okla GOP Politicians Still For a Strong Supt?