Hopes, Fears, & Dreams for Oklahoma Education

  Today marks the day that Joy Hofmeister takes over for Janet Barresi and her Reign of Error. It marks the end of four miserable years for Oklahoma Education. Janet, and honestly other leaders in the state, spent most of four years bowing down to Jeb Bush and the privatization movement. Her whole term was marked by a constant battle between those who were labeled the status quo and attempts to demoralize teachers and downgrade public education. Thankfully though those days are gone. But what does the new days ahead and Joy mean?  There are a lot of fanfare and celebrations going on today.

  My hopes for Joy and her team are that she can repair some of the damage done to public education. I truly hope that Joy will bring back to the table those with education knowledge. Get input from those that are experts in their field, whether that is testing, accountability, finance, or school management. I hope she can have some say in carving out meaningful education legislation and deter those bills aimed at meddling in education. My true hope is that Joy can be half she has been built up to be in the last year.

  I will be honest and say that I have some fears. I have seen hundreds of administrators and teachers jump on the Joy bandwagon. Following Janet we are all looking for a hero. My fears are she has never been a school administrator and has very limited classroom experience. We just riled the last superintendent for both of those. Stop me if you have heard this but there have been people who have run for public office and made promises never to come close to keeping those promises. Joy has all kinds of landmines to dodge.  She has a governor who if she wasn't so political favors the Jeb Bush privatization reforms. Was a champion for Common Core until her governor's race got too close for comfort. What happens the first time that Joy and "The Establishment don't agree"? Joy said all the right things up until today. Saying and doing are two different things! She is going to get pressure from all sides, which side will she choose?

  My dreams for this new day are pretty simple. I want respect brought back to our fine men and women who enter the classroom every day with thousands of challenges. They don't deserve lagging pay, less money for supplies, unfair evaluations, and to be demeaned. When I got into education I knew I wanted to coach, with that I knew people were going to say things about me and try to get me fired for not playing Johnny or Sally enough. When I went into administration I knew the same things were a potential reality. But our hardworking classroom teachers don't deserve that ridicule. They just want to make a difference in children's lives everyday. My dream is that they find Joy and it's all that its cracked up to be!!