ARE OKLA GOP POLITICIANS STILL FOR A STRONG SUPT?
Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction
Photo by Brett Dickerson
There are Republican politicians in Oklahoma. And then, there is that Republican politician. You know – that Joy Hofmeister.
She’s the Republican who primaried and beat Janet Barresi, incumbent Republican sweetheart of the public school bashing bandwagon.
She then went on to take Barresi’s place on the state-wide education stage as the new and very popular Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Her presence stands to put pressure on Republican politicians here in a way that they didn’t expect way back in 2011 when they quickly passed sweeping changes that gave that position new powers, not only over the Department of Education, but the board itself.
And there is pressure.
According to some sources, all members of the board are up for either re-appointment or replacement before April 2 when appointments take effect.
The biggest question, which was raised by fellow blogger Rob Miller last night, is whether or not Governor Fallin will support this elected superintendent and appoint new board members who can acknowledge Hofmeister’s leadership.
Pressures mount
Yesterday the State Board of Education members, all appointed by Republican Governor Mary Fallin to support the last chief, finallycouldn’t hold their irritation in check any longer.
The Tulsa World’s account of the heated end of yesterday’s board meeting described it as a “tug-of-war” that “boiled over” between Hofmeister and several of the members of the board.
According to the report, three board members were especially upset when they thought that Hofmeister, who by law is the executive of the board, ran too quickly past the “New Business” part of the agenda and didn’t give them time to enter motions that they wanted discussed.
The report describes two of the three speaking in “raised voices” to Are Okla GOP Politicians Still For a Strong Supt?:
