On Monday, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction shared dangerous and inflammatory material about OEA at the OSDE Board Meeting. Below is OEA’s response:
Oklahoma educators are exhausted from the constant barrage of attacks from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He is supposed to be the leader of public education in the state, but consistently looks to manufacture division between educators and parents.
It is important to respond to the video the Superintendent posted (and quickly removed) —which was creatively edited and intentionally misrepresented OEA members. Not a single speaker or portion of the video portrayed anyone from the state of Oklahoma.
Oklahomans see this for what it is, a desperate attempt to raise a politician’s profile at the expense of our neighborhood schools.
We want to build positive relationships and improve public education in Oklahoma, rather than having to continually defend hardworking educators after every board meeting by responding to inflammatory and dangerous accusations. It’s easy to engage in political theater. The difficult work is addressing the actual challenges our students face each day. Educators should not be vilified for attempting to advocate for their profession. OEA’s mission, for 134 years, has been to serve our students, our educators, and our communities.
We will continue to do this work long after political opportunists move on to their next grift.
