Governor Kevin Stitt has scored another hard-fought victory in his quest to destroy and sabotage public education in Oklahoma.
Yesterday afternoon, Stitt's right-wing lemmings on the State School Board voted to punish both the Tulsa and Mustang School Districts for violating House Bill 1775 – the state's oppressive and authoritarian "Please ignore and don't talk about race in schools" law.
Here are some details via The Oklahoman:
A teacher's complaint against taking racial bias training caused a demotion to Tulsa Public Schools’ accreditation status, the first penalty enforced against a district for violating an Oklahoma law limiting discussions of race and gender in schools.
The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted 4-2 in a fiery meeting Thursday to drop Tulsa's status to accredited with warning, an even graver penalty than was recommended. The Oklahoma State Department of Education determined the implicit bias training violated House Bill 1775 and advised the board label Tulsa as "accredited with deficiencies."
"Accredited with warning is sufficient in this case because we need to send a message," board member Estela Hernandez said during the meeting.
If the message they're trying to send is "Our governor is a petty asshole who picks fights with public school districts to score political brownie points" or "Oklahoma is a dystopian hellhole that no business should ever relocate to," then congratulations! Mission accomplished.
For the most part, I don't think anyone was surprised Stitt and Co. voted to punish the Tulsa Public School District.