Editorial: It's a new school year. Teachers want politics out of education

A new school year soon begins, year two since the Oklahoma Legislature dug a ditch and buried the bar for education in Oklahoma when it passed House Bill 1775 and set off a chaotic reaction to teaching in public schools.

Teachers now have to adapt to an education environment that penalizes discussion of race, even in historical context and, despite what the law says, discriminates against those who identify as a nontraditional gender. Perhaps that’s not what the Legislature intended, but like feckless moths drawn to the new flame of “anti-wokeism” they pushed their constituents to focus on a bankrupt ideology instead of fixing the reasons Oklahoma is ranked 49th and 46th respectively in education and the overall well-being of our children.

That legislative ditch is where the state schools superintendent has set up shop, crafting policy against what he calls “indoctrination,” otherwise known as the discussion of race or gender, threatening disaccreditation to schools and pulling teachers’ licenses for whatever infraction he thinks they have committed.

It’s in this climate that we asked readers, including teachers, to share their hopes for the coming school year. Readers are frustrated with the leadership at the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Teachers are cautious, tired of politics, but their passion for teaching prompts a hopeful and optimistic outlook. Their concern is on fixing the system that has placed Oklahoma at No. 49 in the nation; they simply want to teach and students to learn; they want the “complexity and political environment,” as one reader said, to stop so teachers can better serve Oklahoma’s students; they want students to develop a love for reading heightened by a “diverse range of reading materials,” as another reader told us. The state Education Department might have lost its conscience, but clearly our teachers have not.

How low the bar in the ditch goes is undetermined. Just when one thinks things can't get more alarming, they do ― our superintendent intends to insert Christian ideology in public school classrooms, with daily prayer and displays of the Ten Commandments. Nothing has been said about offering equal space and time for other religions, but surely that's not the same as "indoctrination." He seems ready to implement the political will of a group of evangelical pastors but won't listen to the pleas for support from teachers and school districts that just want to improve the quality of education for kids across the state.

It’s time to stop politicizing education. Stop using the modifiers “liberal” and “conservative” to describe education or teachers. Education is just education, instruction that elicits an enlightening experience. Oklahoma will remain in the ditch until teachers are allowed to do their jobs in an environment free of unnecessary constraints.

Clytie Bunyan is managing editor of diversity, community engagement and opinion.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Editorial: Allow Oklahoma teachers to do their jobs, without politics