Since I live and work in House District 42 - I'll review the candidates positions for our public schools for that district only.. in the interest of brevity:
Liz George (D) - Liz George currently is a Blanchard Board of Education member, so is the favored candidate for many teachers and public school supporters in District 42 (McClain and Garvin County) - whether democrat, republican, libertarian, or independent. Many conservative voters like her because she believes in local control of our public schools.. not state or federal control, and she is against school consolidation and corporate acquisition of public school funding. Her children attend public school, so Liz George wants the best and brightest teachers in the classroom. Liz "knows" school funding and finance, so will work hard to ensure that every education dollar is spent wisely. She has the background to fully understand school law (An attorney), and has the tools to help schools avoid the "corporate welfare" trap of school privatization.
Tara Jo Thompson (D) - Tara Jo Thompson, concerning our public schools, states ..."We have protesters rallying support at our capitol for public education funding, while we have been funneling education funding from the Lottery and Gaming Commissions into Charter and Private Schools - instead of where it needs to go... I will demand that we give our teachers the tools and resources that they need to educate our children".
Many teachers and public school supporters believe the above candidates will be better for public schools and students, than the following:
Allie Burgin (R) - The only comment Allie has made concerning our public schools is "I am for 'school choice'." Many teachers (R and D) and conservatives believe that the "school choice" (vouchers to private schools) philosophy is all about the "Betsy DeVos" federal corporate plan for spending public tax dollars on private services. It is among the corporate tenets for reforming our public schools, so "school choice" is really about state legislators' choice of spending public funds for the privatization of schools. If any state candidate for the Senate or House agrees to vote for privatization of our local public schools, or help proliferate corporate charter schools - he or she may be the recipient of $thousands in dark money support from our friend - Betsy DeVos (DeVos is the former CEO of the dark money group 'Stand for Children'.
While there is no incumbent running for the District 42 seat (Tim Downing resigned after only one two-year term for reasons unknown), Allie Burgin is the closest candidate to being an incumbent - since Tim Downing "passed him the baton" in his "farewell" letter. Most public school officials and teachers believe Mr. Burgin will attempt to do the same job Tim attempted to do, while in office. We'll examine the votes and support of Tim Downing during his short stay at the capitol to find out what Allie is likely to support.
1) Tim Downing co-sponsored a bill which would have blocked incarceration reform, thereby helping to incarcerate even more Oklahomans. Oklahoma already holds the world record for imprisonment of citizens. Burgin is likely to do the same, as he's received the corporate baton.
2) Tim Downing voted "no" teacher pay raises two times during his term, and verbally expressed no support for the one-cent sales tax for teacher salaries before taking office.(As Superintendent Hofmeister, however, said about Tim - "Tim Downing really does support teachers and students".) Allie Burgin is also not likely to support teachers.
3) Tim Downing, during his short two year term: voted to continue raiding the County Improvement for Roads and Bridges (CIRB) fund, thereby ensuring that our Garvin and McClain County roads will continue deteriorating. His vote helped transfer $236 million from our county roads fund - to state highways and roads. The issue for his District 42 constituents is that most state highways and roads in Garvin and McClain County saw no improvement (the 4-mile dangerous stretch of Highway 76 North of Lindsay, the Bankhead Highway east and west of Elmore City, etc...) as a result of Downing's gift, courtesy of our county roads. Allie Burgin is likely to vote to continue raiding the CIRB fund.
4) Tim Downing campaigned on the premise that he would "fight tax increases" for his constituents in District 42. While he did vote against all tax increases for teacher pay raises, balancing the state budget, and providing funding for state services... he never offered any other viable alternatives for solving one state crisis after another, and providing appropriate funding for education (except to eliminate bureaucracy "superintendents") and transportation (except to raid county road funding for state road funding). Allie Burgin is thought to possess the same "math skills" as Tim Downing, so taxes are likely to increase if Burgin is elected.
To find out more about how Allie Burgin is likely to govern, see more of Tim Downing's "farewell" facts.
Cynthia Roe (R) - Cindy's campaign website espouses only one statement concerning our public schools: Cindy supports our local schools and wants to see more dollars reach the classroom, and not wasted on bureaucracy. To many teachers, public school officials, and conservatives, this statement appears to be the standard corporate line for public education. For instance, "bureaucracy" can be interpreted to mean "superintendents", which is the corporate "code" for corporate education reform. When asked about "support for school vouchers", however, Cindy answered that she opposes public funds for private purposes - which is diametrically opposed to the corporate philosophy for our public schools. Of the two primary (R) candidates for our public schools, Cynthia Roe and Allie Burgin, Cynthia is definitely the public school choice for most republican teachers and school officials.
This District 42 analysis of the primary state elections next Tuesday, June 26, is the last in a three-part (state office) series. Many teachers and public school advocates support candidates from every party - republicans, democrats, libertarians, and independents alike. After the primaries on June 26, we'll take a look at the remaining candidates and analyze their public school positions for further enlightenment.
Update, June 21, 2018 - I'll now make my primary predictions for the three state office elections, to be held on Tuesday, June 26:
State Superintendent of Schools primary - It's really too close to call between the incumbent Joy Hofmeister - and the top challenger Linda Murphy. While many public school employees support Joy to be re-elected, many more have been disenchanted by her apparent non-support of our public schools and support of the "corporate" school reform movement, vouchers, charters, etc... Since public school teachers and officials will make up only about 5% of those voting on Tuesday, it is very doubtful that our public schools will have a big impact on the outcome of this primary.
Governor primary - The republican primary will probably result in a run-off between Todd Lamb and either Mick Cornett or Kevin Stitt. The favorite teacher and public school advocate candidate Gary Jones has only been polling at 5%, which is matched by the likely teacher vote at 5%, so don't look for him to make the run-off. In the Libertarian primary, the winner will likely be Joe Exotic, while Drew Edmondson will win the democratic primary.
House District 42 primary - Liz George will likely be the democratic nominee for House District 42, while Allie Burgin will win the republican primary over Cindy Rowe. While Allie is a "corporate" republican and has the most money to spend for campaigning, Cindy Rowe doesn't have much financial support and only has the support of constituent voters and non-voters. Most people know that money beats good intentions almost every time.
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