State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who is now involved in more than eight lawsuits and has spent more than $100,000 in associated expenses, has just proposed the biggest scam yet.
Walters wants the public school superintendents to be elected to their position. He said this makes them more accountable to parents and taxpayers in their district.
The idea makes no sense whatsoever ... unless one has their own political agenda.
School superintendents already answer to the local elected school board officials. These officials are the voice of the people in the local school district. If a superintendent is not accountable to the people and taxpayers, the school board has the ability to fire him or her.
In fact, Oklahoma’s hire and fire at-will law ensures that a Superintendent is accountable. Just like any other employee in Oklahoma, the board can choose to fire that person at any time for any reason, as long as it’s not unlawful.
Walters said, “Due to the ongoing, entrenched influence of radical teachers’ union agendas, many superintendents across the state continue to defy the reforms implemented under conservative leadership.”
This is nonsense. In fact, Walters has attempted to put his agenda into local schools, but they’ve been shot down by the courts and local districts because they are either not legal, or they are not in the best interests of educating students in the public school systems.
Senator Julie Daniels (R-Bartlesville) said, “Elected school board members are responsible for the governance of school districts. Their first duty is to oversee the expenditure of tax dollars that fund education in their district. Their second duty is to hire a superintendent to manage the district.”
Another of the superintendent’s duties is to ensure local control of the school district. A hired superintendent is there to look out for local community desires. An elected superintendent would continually be raising money for a campaign and be beholden to his or her contributors — some of which have their own agendas and will likely be from elsewhere in the state or even out of state.
Walters said, “We have seen rogue school administrators ignore the will of the parents and taxpayers in their district to inject pornography into schools, cover up the sexual misconduct of teachers, allow students to lick each other’s toes, and even be arrested (for) public intoxication on school grounds. Parents are rightfully horrified by this kind of misconduct, and it’s time to put parents in control over their neighborhood schools by giving voters a direct way to hold superintendents accountable.”
Of course parents are horrified by this kind of misconduct and we don’t want this happening in our local schools, but these are only isolated incidents. Again, the local school board and an unelected superintendent already has the ability to handle these situations.
Non-profit watchdog media outlet Oklahoma Voice reports that there is little interest in the legislature to put forth a new law for electing superintendents. Just in case this were to change, we’d like the legislators to know the public is not for Walters’ latest scam.
This idea is another by the misguided State Superintendent that needs to die off before it sends Walters and the state taxpayers to court for yet another lawsuit.
