New education secretary vows to be a voice for parents, teachers and children fighting to learn

A self-described “warrior mom” and “people person,” Nellie Tayloe Sanders doesn’t want to focus on issues she believes will distract her from what she sees as her most important mission as Oklahoma’s new education secretary — helping kids from a wide variety of backgrounds find better ways to learn.

“This has been a very emotional journey for me,” Sanders said. “It’s one that really has roots in a lot of heartache as a child, to not ever really learn the same way as others. I want people, more than anything, to understand that this is something to me that is vulnerable, because the whole entire way we are rated and evaluated, and our entire potential as humans, is completely tied up with our ability to read, write, spell and do math like everybody else — and I have never been that.

“We have a lot to evaluate. I am so determined to be a voice for a fighting parent and fighting teacher and a fighting child.”

During a wide-ranging interview Monday with The Oklahoman, Sanders spoke often of the unique perspective she brings to a position that’s been fraught with politics in recent years, thanks in good part to current state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters.

Walters was the state’s education secretary from September 2020 until April 2023, three months into his term as superintendent. Walters’ successor, Katherine Curry, lasted three months before stepping down, saying the “complexity and political environment” surrounding the position led her to decide to return to the classroom.

Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Sanders last month to fill the role, noting she “has championed innovative paths in education, particularly for those with dyslexic thinking and unique learning styles. At that time, Walters called her “a respected advocate for students and parents throughout the state.”

Sanders seeks to stay above the political fray that envelops Oklahoma education

To Sanders, the political aspects of the job are “just noise.” She certainly understands politics — her husband, Mike Sanders, served 12 years as a state representative and now is the executive director of the Oklahoma Broadband Office — but said her desire is to rise above the fray.

She wants to focus on ways to improve student outcomes, to provide a plethora of choices for parents and to use technology to reach students who struggle with traditional methods of learning — much as she did growing up.

“I have a unique understanding of this at a depth that is incredibly painful,” she said. “For a child to have to go to school every single day, when they cannot do it, it’s almost like experiencing something that is an open wound and pouring salt in it.

“I want so badly for children to understand that there is nothing wrong with the way that they think, the speed that they learn. They are perfect, and they deserve to have somebody who understands and has made it to fight for them.”

Sanders’ background informs her passion. Diagnosed with dyslexia while in elementary school, she had difficulty learning, even as she was also told she tested at “genius level” for “street smarts.” Her parents’ search for an educational solution for their daughter led them to enroll her in a boarding school. Her children have faced similar learning struggles.

Bringing more technology, including AI, into schools could be a game-changer, she says

Incorporating more technology into learning, she believes, and combining it with the “soft skills” of a good teacher, will be an effective way of helping kids who think and learn differently than others.

“It levels the playing field for people,” Sanders said of technology. “It will never replace the human interaction that is essential, that teachers provide, and the love and the security and the safety and the development. But I would need both.”

She also said Oklahoma educators need to embrace the use of artificial intelligence.

“AI, whether we like it or not, is coming,” she said. “We can decide to either sit back and wait for it or we can say, ‘There are so many school districts that are embracing this stuff and it is amazing.’ We can start talking about what they’re doing and figure out if that’s a model for our state.”

Sanders believes in providing as many alternative paths to learning as possible, which is one reason she voted, while a member of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, to approve the creation of what would be the nation’s first public religious charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Two lawsuits against that decision now are pending, one filed by Attorney General Gentner Drummond in the state Supreme Court and another filed by a group of taxpayers in Oklahoma County District Court.

Sanders said the issue boils down to providing parental choice and that the controversy surrounding St. Isidore “takes away from what’s happening. That is a minority issue to me. There is no question that I believe that a child should be given (that opportunity), through their parents, because that’s with them, their taxpayer money, period, end of story, for me. I would never limit them.”

Sanders believes alternate paths of education are key to help Oklahoma address educational issues

Providing alternative paths of education, Sanders believes, will help reach more families and students and address Oklahoma’s significant problem with school absenteeism. The state received an F in that category on the most recent statewide School Report Card.

Overcoming the “shame” and “trauma” long associated with educational struggles — by both parents and students ― is key, she said, in addressing poor outcomes in reading, math and other subjects. If students don’t want to attend school, she reasons, there must be an underlying issue.

“What do you think is happening at home?” she asked. “Do you think those are parents who have been working with their kids, too, like me, and they’re probably struggling and they’re trying to figure out how to keep their jobs, and put food on the table, and they themselves had the same thing happen when they went to school?

“I will be the first one to say there is so much shame in not being someone who reads, writes, spells, does math at the same level as everybody else, but I hope those little ones look out and they say, ‘Nellie is like me and she’s fighting for me.’ Because I can, and I know. I will fight for the change I know we can be. I know Oklahoma can lead us. We don’t have to be the last. We have an opportunity to really come together. … There is a lot of healing we need to be doing.”

Sanders wants to employ a forward-thinking mindset as education secretary, looking ahead to what jobs will be relevant in 2090, the year around when a child born in the present time would be preparing for retirement. Oklahoma schools should be thinking ahead to that time and the state’s pioneer spirit should be an asset in reaching that goal, she said.

“I think that Oklahomans have the answer,” she said. “We are incredibly talented people. We have incredible educators that dedicate their lives to the development of our children. There isn’t anything they wouldn’t do to give our children what they need.

“I haven’t met one person that isn’t absolutely determined in education to provide children with the education they need — not one.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New Oklahoma education secretary Nellie Sanders shares goals for role