What have Oklahoma’s governor candidates said about education?

Attorney General Gentner Drummond gives a speech on improving Oklahoma public education for his gubernatorial campaign at the Edmond History Museum on Tuesday in Edmond. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY — While other leading GOP candidates for Oklahoma governor pledged to continue a campaign against the “radical left” in public schools, Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Gentner Drummond called for state leaders to change their tone toward teachers.

In a speech Tuesday at the Edmond History Museum, Drummond urged state officials to “stop tearing down our teachers” and elevate the profession instead. He pointed his remarks at state Superintendent Ryan Walters, whose fiery brand of politics has been built on attacking perceived “left-wing indoctrination” in schools, and at Gov. Kevin Stitt, who initially endorsed Walters’ rise to statewide office.

An anti-left message similar to Walters’ is prevalent in the platforms of former House Speaker Charles McCall and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, Drummond’s highest-fundraising Republican opponents. Both McCall and Mazzei have focused much of their campaign messaging on defeating alleged liberal influence in schools and elsewhere in deep-red Oklahoma.

Walters, himself, has been suggested in statewide polling as a potential candidate to succeed Stitt, who is term limited as governor. Walters hasn’t yet announced a campaign for higher office nor for reelection as superintendent.

Drummond, a native of Hominy, said he hopes to see Walters join the gubernatorial race.

“That’s one way of term-limiting him,” Drummond told reporters after his speech. “So, we can get a new opportunity for new leadership in (the state Department of Education) to where the next superintendent works with educators, not against them.”

Like his GOP colleagues, Drummond voiced support for empowering parents’ role in their children’s schooling and improving Oklahoma’s poor academic outcomes, particularly in early elementary reading.

Only 23% of fourth graders and 20% of eighth graders in Oklahoma performed at a proficient level in reading last year on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test administered every two years in all 50 states.

Drummond, like many Oklahomans in recent weeks, also referenced a survey by the website WalletHub that ranked Oklahoma 50th in the nation for education.

“I’ve met with scores and scores of teachers throughout the state of Oklahoma that simply want leadership from Oklahoma City that acknowledges their worth, their devotion and dedication to our young people,” he said. “And then, together let’s encircle that profession, lift it up, empowering our parents to be engaged and providing a path forward for our young people to be successful.”

It’s unclear whether Drummond’s emphasis on elevating educators would include a teacher pay raise. He said the answer to Oklahoma’s teacher shortage isn’t “just throwing money at it,” but he included “competitive pay” in his plan for recruiting and retaining educators, as well as teacher mentorship and streamlining certification.

Mazzei, of Tulsa, said he would put $200 million into reading education, a plan that includes paying tutors to help struggling students catch up to their grade level.

“School principals and superintendents need to have direct oversight of these kids and be held responsible for the lack of significant improvement,” he wrote in his campaign platform.

Mazzei said Oklahoma should reframe the standards and criteria to become a superintendent “to weed out those who adhere to the woke tenets of liberalism which has undermined and destroyed public education in this state.” 

He pledged to move school board elections to November and to get personally involved in school board races to help elect conservative candidates.

McCall, of Atoka, hasn’t released a formal education platform, but when announcing his run for governor, he pointed to “the left and outside forces” that he said are “waging war” on Oklahomans’ way of life, including by radicalizing schools.

He highlighted school policies the Legislature passed during his tenure as House speaker, a time when Republicans “beat the radical left every step of the way.”

That included new laws requiring individuals to use school bathrooms that align with their biological sex, banning transgender girls from participating in women’s sports and offering tax credits to families with children in private schools. The Legislature also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into increasing public-school funding and teacher salaries.

McCall voiced support for President Donald Trump’s plan to close the U.S. Department of Education and give more control of public schools to the states. 

He joined Trump’s secretary of education, Linda McMahon, and Stitt on Tuesday for a charter school tour in Warr Acres. He later posted on social media that Oklahoma’s education rating is “unacceptable” and he looks forward to working with McMahon to “strengthen opportunity and better education for every Oklahoma student.”

Former state Sen. Jake Merrick, of Tuttle, said Oklahoma should redirect school funds from “bloated administration” to classrooms. 

Leisa Mitchell Haynes, a Republican candidate from Choctaw, would prioritize prayer in schools, teacher support and leadership programs for high school seniors, according to her website.

House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, is the only non-Republican in the race for governor. Munson said she would push to raise education funding over the regional average, increase salaries of teachers and school staff, and eliminate tax credits that benefit private schools.

Oklahoma is behind all six of its bordering states in per-pupil spending, a key metric in determining school funding, according to the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. Recent teacher pay raises have bumped Oklahoma up to fourth in the seven-state region for average teacher compensation.

“You hear the governor continue to say, ‘We can be a top 10 state in X,Y,Z category,” Munson said while speaking with reporters on May 16 during the legislative session. “He has said that for seven years. Education (in Oklahoma) is still last in the nation. We are still behind when it comes to teacher pay and per-pupil spending.”

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