School’s back in session, but Oklahoma education leaders don’t seem to be worried about the kids

Schools start up again this week for hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma students, and our public classrooms are in the throes of a massive teacher shortage.

Our children return from summer breaks suffering from some of the highest rates of adverse childhood experiences related to abuse, neglect and mental health struggles. Many of them are hungry. And they’re not excelling in school.

But the adults whose job is championing strategies to improve our kids’ futures are too busy bickering about their own adverse adult experience involving images of nude women shown on Superintendent Ryan Walters’ office television.

In their quest to defend their honor and tarnish someone else’s to prove they’re the wounded party in this debacle, they all seem to have forgotten who they’re supposed to be serving: our children.

Everybody that doesn’t live in a happy bubble knows that our school children today are dealing with worse things than a little shared nudity among adults. I suspect some children have probably dealt with worse in the month.

After all, they’re continually facing the threat of school shootings. Ours is a state that experiences high rates of domestic violence, high poverty rates, low health care outcomes, and high rates of childhood hunger.

We’ve experienced a recent drop to 50th in the country in education quality. We rank 48th worst in per pupil spending, investing a pitiful $11,349 per student. Our teacher pay is 38th worst in the country, about $2,300 below the regional average.

But instead of focusing on those struggles, we’re witnessing the bitter implosion of a seven-member governing board that is supposed to be working together to advocate for policies that chart a better path forward for our children. We’ve got a state superintendent and members of the board who have embarked on a bizarre crusade to prove they’re the true victims here.

Meanwhile, an initial probe released by Republican House Speaker Kyle Hilbert indicates that this brouhaha may boil down to adults being exposed to a little-remembered, R-rated Jackie Chan Hollywood flick that had scenes featuring fully nude women.

Hilbert said his findings seem “to vindicate” both Walters and the board members and these images weren’t shown intentionally.

If anything, Hilbert’s findings make this situation seem even more absurd.

Why was this board even watching TV in the first place during a closed-door meeting? They were supposed to be considering high-stakes matters that impact students, families, teacher licenses and schools. The television shouldn’t have been on, and the fact that it was makes me wonder if anyone is actually taking their responsibilities seriously.

But instead of taking responsibility for that blunder, two education board members last week decided the best course of action was to dump gasoline on this dumpster fire by firing off a statement that included “what we saw on TV is content that would get the certificate of any teacher in this state revoked had it showed up on a classroom TV.”

Here we go again.

It’s not exactly shocking that a governing board that stripped one teacher’s license for providing high school students with a way to access an online library catalog that contains banned books would threaten the same punishment for another educator showing R-rated movies to people over 17. Is it any wonder that qualified teachers are fleeing to Texas or exiting the profession in droves?

I attended high school in a high-performing district in Texas. I occasionally viewed R-rated movies like “The Patriot,” and those teachers didn’t have their livelihoods threatened.

Maybe if Republican leadership stood up with the same gusto to Walters’ agenda that directly impacts students when it comes time to set academic standards or invest millions on Bible class in public schools we could take them seriously.

It’s clear that the losers here are our public schools and the roughly 700,000 children that rely on them.

It’s unfortunate that this debacle has distracted from that.

When Gov. Kevin Stitt ousted three State Board of Education members in February, he said he was sick of the panel driving up “needless political drama.”

“If we want to be the best state for business, we need to make sure our kids have a path to success,” he said at the time. “It’s time for some fresh eyes and a renewed focus on our top ten goals.”

In a rare occurrence, I wholeheartedly agreed with the governor. I’d been looking forward to seeing what fresh ideas this board has to offer because what we’re doing isn’t moving the needle in the right direction.

Maybe the Board of Education needs to go back to school. Is this the best we can do?

I’m waiting for someone, anyone, to step up, show some leadership and remember what really matters here.

Our children.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.