Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt kicked his own appointee off the State Board of Education who made the terrible error of trying to claw back millions from a for-profit charter school and supported a mask mandate in all public schools.
Gov. Kevin Stitt abruptly replaced one of his own appointees to the Oklahoma State Board of Education this week.
Kurt Bollenbach of Kingfisher, who was appointed in April 2019 to serve a four-year term, recently supported a high-profile move to claw back more than $11 million in state funding from Epic Charter Schools and a failed attempt to mandate masks in all public schools.
He also recently drew public criticism from school choice advocates for leading a delay of approval for a couple of private schools to begin accepting state-funded scholarships for disabled students and foster children over questions about whether the schools’ anti-discrimination policies met minimum state and federal requirements.
Stitt replaced Bollenbach by appointing a home-schooling parent who opposes mask-wearing during the pandemic to the State Board of Education.
Many elected officials wondered why Stitt would appoint someone to the State Board who has no knowledge of Oklahoma’s schools and no qualifications. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister praised Kurt Bollenbach, who was dumped by Stitt, apparently for being too responsible.
Hofmeister released this statement:
“Kurt Bollenbach has been an exceptional board member whose legal acumen, breadth of experience and commitment to excellence have been of great value to the State Board of Education. He is a man of tremendous principle and integrity. Of course, I look forward to meeting his successor on the board, Ms. Crabtree, and anticipate a good working relationship with her, but I will miss Kurt’s bold leadership.”
Melissa Crabtree is an ardent opponent of wearing face masks. She will, one expects, continue to oppose science and public health measures as a member of the state board.
As a reader in Okahoma said to me in an email, “I think I am living in bizarro world.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Gov. Kevin Stitt abruptly replaced one of his own appointees to the Oklahoma State Board of Education this week.”
No dissent is permitted in ed reform. They want an echo chamber and a group of compliant rubber stamps on these boards.
All charter schools are wonderful and any private school is better than any public school
Go look on any of the ed reform sites or lobbying orgs or university departments that push ed reform- you will not find a single criticism of any charter school, charter school chain or voucher program. You will also not find a criticism or real questioning of any prominent ed reformer, ever.
It’s even worse when you get to the funders. Look at any prominent ed reformer’s writing and try to find any criticism or real analysis at all of a Gates or Walton or Broad initiative- there is none. Apparently everything the billionaire backers of this movement do is 100% great.
Echo. Chamber. No dissenters permitted and no criticism allowed. They’re well-compensated cheerleaders.
I read a lot of ed reformers online and there is TONS of criticism of public schools- probably 90% of their output is criticism of public schools.
What you’ll NEVER find? Criticism of any of their fellow ed reformers or criticism of a charter school or voucher school.
They’re professional critics of public schools yet they never criticize their own work or their own colleagues. It’s such an echo chamber none of them even seem to notice this glaring omission.
Love your thoughtful emails but I need to opt out for now.
Please remove me from your blog. Hope to reconnect in the future.
Eileen
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Eileen,
I don’t control who receives the blog. You have to unsubscribe.
We are now living in a time when our local, state, and national leadership are not willing to accept dissension. The leadership is not willing to listen to other thoughts and ideas. Trump is the leader of the pack of these dictatorial individuals. This way of leading has been growing over recent years to the point where people who are qualified to be leaders are refusing to do so. More and more people who really care about this nation are becoming more and more unwilling to stand and up to be counted.
One of my biggest fears is that the younger generations are seeing what is happening and will turn their backs on the positions where their talents can best serve their country, their state, their community. This is not the way to make this country great. It is a way for people to cow down, become followers not leaders, and live in a society where open discussions and sharing of ideas during decisions processes are no longer acceptable.
This is what happens when a country moves towards a dictatorship. In my view, what is happening is Oklahoma and many other states as well as in our current national administration is a form of dictatorship and it will continue to grow if it is not stopped and stopped soon.
Agree with your comment. I do know if there is a way to stop the political machinery that day by day is moving closer to the dictatorships known to me even as a child, when Mussolini and Hitler loyalists were on the march.
Now we see a handful of Trump’s loyalists arguing for Trump to declare a national emergency, and set in motion actions for a martial law ending with Trump being re-elected.
Meanwhile elective surgery in not possible in many hospitals filled with people who have the deadly virus.
It’s been interesting to watch how contact tracing works in my son’s public school. Ohio didn’t really do coordinated contract tracing for the general public, but schools do it. One really gets a sense of how it might have worked quite well if we had competent government who put some effort in. Contact tracing along with a mask mandate has kept our public school open for MOST kids – kids cycle in and out of quarantine – a lot of kids, I don’t mean to minimize it- there are tens of kids quarantined every day- but most are attending school on any given day.
Schools will have a way to approach this next time, even if we never again have competent state or federal government to assist them. They can just plug in the mask mandate and start tracing infected students.
Oklahomans are uniting with our Democratic Christian friends to STOP 🛑 the defunding and defaming of our public education institutions and the complicit Republican Party Choice Lies that enrich investors like Betsy Devos: my Republican leadership supports our police 👮♀️ officers YET not our educators. It’s all about using our youth to line politicians and the wealthy private education investors POCKETS at the expense of our futures. The wealth divide will further diminish our great middle class. It ain’t rocket 🚀 science, political, personal, or religious to STAND up to all complicit Republicans at all levels of governance who continue to enable the corrupt agendas….
You can’t make up this sh*t. I am ashamed of my beloved state.
Born and raised in the United States. Happy to be a citizen of this great country. But right now I am not proud of what is happening in the United States. I am not proud of what this country has become. Oklahoma is not the only state that is screwed up in so many ways because of leadership at the state and federal levels. I have been told if I don’t like it leave it. I am not willing to do that because there is a lot to safe in this country — mainly the people. People and the society in which we live need to come first. Not the politicians, corporations, and big money interests.
The selfishness and egocentricity of people leading this country right now has made the United States the laughing stock of the world. Our leadership has become more interested in themselves and less caring about the people they are supposed to be serving.