You may have seen that on last Thursday the State School Board approved the application of the Sovereign Community Charter School. This school will be in Oklahoma City and is the first of its kind in the United States. Why? Because it may well really help Native American children in advancing their education. The school is also open to all those who apply.
The problem in Oklahoma public education is those running it are tone deaf and very ignorant of many new methods.
In the case of Sovereign Community, they had applied to the Oklahoma City School district for a sponsorship and had been turned down more than once.
The Native American children living in the OKC district had an average graduation rate of 57 percent for the district versus 75 percent for the entire district. Please don’t think the 75 percent number means those students are college or life ready, they are simply moved on to make ready for more unequipped bodies.
Tribal students carry different interests and backgrounds than say Irish students. The strong opinion is a charter school which values their needs might just work.
Unfortunately, the Oklahoma City School District, like so many others, fights to preserve the status quo. Even though, in Oklahoma City’s case, all their middle schools are graded as “F.” Why should anyone have to send their children to an “F” school? Only in Oklahoma is this tolerated and advanced by our incompetent school administrators.
Well, after the State School Board vote was taken, I was congratulated by two people whose opinions I value. If you don’t know, Governor Fallin in her keen judge of character and insight into what’s good for the state, appointed me to the State School Board.
I shall look for every opportunity to move the needle regardless of the superintendents who fight all positive changes. Most of these people are vastly overpaid for what they produce.
Those who congratulated the board were the Muskogee Creek Chief James Floyd and the unnamed huge contributor to public education. The latter person admitted that his organization gives $5 million to Tulsa Public Schools and is still waiting for its positive impact.
Don’t wait too long for it might be a long, long time to see results. Public education in my opinion is run by the wrong people. Those running our school districts were poor teachers and terrible administrators. Just look at their record.
On August 15, the Tulsa World laid it out for all to read. “Tulsa Public Schools performance on state testing continued to trail the state-wide average in every grade and subject in 2018.”
And why won’t it? Students had two weeks off on spring break and their teachers then took two weeks to demonstrate at the capitol. The tests were given the next week. Who do the teachers work for? Who do the administrators care about? Certainly not your child. Oh well, isn’t that what college remediation is for? To make up for all the waste foisted on Oklahoma’s youth by those in charge of public education.