Oklahoma Governor Vetoes a Bad Bill for Education

May 15th, 2009

I want to sincerely thank Oklahoma Governor Brad for recognizing legislation which would have devastated Oklahoma education.

Last week, Henry vetoed Senate Bill 834 which would have removed about 20% of Oklahoma schools from having to follow state mandates. This bill was authored by Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville, who apparently had no idea of what he was doing (see this Muskogee Daily Phoenix editorial). When pressed by the Phoenix, he could not say which state mandates were necessarily the bad ones and which ones were good. At least you would think that politicians should have a clue about the laws they write and what effect they would have on their consitiuents.

Senate Bill 834 would have removed certain school districts (of which we are pretty certain Muskogee would be one of them) from state mandates such as teacher pay, class sizes, teacher union protection, contracts, etc. The school district would have the option of reducing a teacher’s pay back to state minimums, increasing their class sizes to unreasonable proportions, firing teachers for any reason whatsoever (including “I just don’t like you”), do away with librarians, do away with counselors, and many more unintended (I’m sure) results.

Apparently, Governor Henry saw this bill as a detriment to Oklahoma education when he vetoed it. Thanks once again.