Say what you want about Ryan Walters, the guy sure was ambitious. Granted, it was an Emperor Palpatine type of way, but ambitious nonetheless.
That’s something you should probably not say about his appointed replacement – Superintendent Lindel Fields. The proof is right there in the school pudding:
Yep, that’s right. The quality and standards of Oklahoma public education have dropped so low that we’re now turning to Mississippi for help and guidance!
Here are the details.
“Improving education is going to contribute to the economic vitality because it’s going to recruit more businesses,” Fields said. “So yeah, I think we all should feel the weight of that and how we can move that forward.”
Speaking after his second State Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Fields said he plans to look to Mississippi’s education model after that state’s literacy outcomes improved dramatically in recent years.
“The Mississippi Marathon, that’s what I call it,” Fields said. “Literacy coaches are a big component of that. But they’re not the only component.”
Listen. Maybe Mississippi has made a lot of strides in reading or whatever – they did have nowhere to go but up – but really? Mississippi? That’s what we’re aiming for now? I mean, has West Virginia grown too out of sight for us?
“Whatever Patrick! As Oklahoma has shown with road and bridge repairs, even shitty states can fix shit if they get lucky!”
I don’t disagree, but the optics of this are awful! I mean, borrowing ideas from Mississippi doesn’t help with the ingrained Oklahoma inferiority complex. What’s next? Adopting dental health guidelines from Arkansas?
In addition to the terrible optics of emulating Mississippi, there are other elements from the Mississippi Plan that raise red flags. First of all, one big component is flunking kids and holding them back:
Mississippi also implemented a retention policy preventing students from moving to the next grade if their literacy scores showed they were behind.
Fields said he is not ruling out adopting a similar system in Oklahoma…
“If we want to refer to the Mississippi Miracle or Marathon, we can’t just pick and choose one thing out of that and expect the same results,” Fields said. “If we want similar or even better results, it’s safe to assume you have to implement all of those things.”
Oh, so he wants to start flunking more kids? How Mary Fallin and Janet Barresi of him! I don’t know how this turned out in Mississippi, but it’s going to be weird when we have 21-year-old men show up for the 10th year of 5th grade.
The other red flag is the OCPA – the local right-wing duncetank that wants to siphon money away from public education and put it into the hands of private-sector grifters – is in full support of the plan:
Yep, nothing to see here.
We just have the new State School Superintendent – one who was appointed by Kevin Stitt – endorsing a plan backed by the same people who want to defund public education in Oklahoma.
In other news, maybe Lindel Fields is more ambitious than we thought!
Anyway, if you’re in the mood for balanced, informed both-side’isms, some State Senator named Carrie Hicks has a breakdown of the Mississippi Plan, its pros and cons, etc., over on her Facebook page. I’d suggest you check it out. In the meantime, stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
