Linda Murphy for Oklahoma State Superintendent

In 2014, Joy Hofmeister (mugshot below) defeated incumbent Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi by a wide margin in the Republican primary. In 2018, she has drawn two primary opponents, newcomer Will Farrell and former State Secretary of Education Linda Murphy.

Linda Murphy is a graduate of Cheyenne High School in western Oklahoma and a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Southwestern Oklahoma State University, with a Bachelor's in Special Education and Elementary Education. From her website, here is a synopsis of her classroom experience:

Linda taught special education in Caddo County in Lookeba-Sickles Public School K-8 grades and in Hinton 6-12 grades. Later she taught in Osage County in Avant Public Schools K-8, where she also served as director of testing. She has taught adults who were illiterate to read and taught braille to students who were legally blind. Linda taught children and adults in all subject areas and with a wide range of exceptional needs including students with Learning Disabilities, Developmental Delay, Autism and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Linda received a statewide award from the State Optometric Association for her work in directing a program in a clinic for students with visually related learning problems. She consulted as a specialist for IEP-Individualized Education Plan teams. She provided hundreds of training presentations for teachers and for Vision Therapists to help them identify visual interference to learning and how to help these students.

In addition to directing the clinical program, she spoke across the U.S. as a liaison for the Optometric Extension Program Foundation dedicated to vision therapy and research. Measurable results in student performance were achieved and documented.

After her narrow 1994 loss to incumbent State Superintendent Sandy Garrett, Linda Murphy was appointed by Gov. Frank Keating as Secretary of Education in his cabinet and appointed by him to a number of state boards dealing with education and workforce development.

Murphy was a leader in the fight that led to Oklahoma's repeal of Outcomes Based Education (the Common Core of the 1990s) and more recently was active in the fight to repeal Oklahoma's adoption of Common Core. Murphy understands that it wasn't enough merely to repeal Common Core in name only, but to fight against efforts to dictate local schools policy from Washington and Oklahoma City.

Linda Murphy is a passionate advocate for public schools, grounded in her personal experience of what they meant to the Cheyenne neighbors of her youth and to the rural communities where she served as a teacher. She believes that the school system should help each child to become an educated citizen and to reach his or her full potential, rather than being used by the Left for social engineering and proselytizing or by Big Business to churn out docile drones or by the unions as places to park the unqualified. Over her quarter-century of involvement with the intersection of education and politics, Murphy understands the forces at the State Capitol that are working to bend the public education system to serve their own selfish interests and what it will take to make the system serve the people of Oklahoma.

Murphy is running her campaign on a tight budget. As of Monday, Murphy raised $13,505 to Hofmeister's $278,000.

Hofmeister's heavily-funded campaign has the backing of the teachers' unions and an intriguing number of companies that sell products and services to public schools. Hofmeister was charged by the Oklahoma County District Attorney with several felonies involving the financing of her 2014 campaign: accepting campaign contributions in excess of legal limits, accepting corporate campaign contributions, and conspiring with campaign consultants and lobbyists. The DA later dropped charges "pending further investigation." Click the link and read the indictment, which includes the emails and messages that were exchanged between Hofmeister and the other alleged conspirators leading to the felony indictments.

One other candidate is running on a shoe-string budget: Will Farrell, a 2004 Cascia Hall graduate, Eagle Scout, and legal assistant for the Titus Hillis Reynolds Love law firm in Tulsa, currently working on his bachelor's degree from OSU.

If you want public schools to be the cornerstone of community and the foundation of an educated citizenry as they once were, Linda Murphy is your candidate.