January 2022 Archives

Two Tuesdays from now, February 8, 2022, will be the first round of school board elections in Oklahoma for those races with at least three candidates. (Races with only two competitors will happen on April 5, along with any runoffs from the February 8 election. The Tulsa Public Schools Office No. 4 race between incumbent Democrat Shawna Keller and Republican challenger E'Lena Ashley will be on the April 5 ballot.)

On February 8 in the Tulsa metro area, there will be school board elections in Broken Arrow, Catoosa, Union; school bond issues in Bixby and Jenks; two city council seats in Sand Springs and one in Sapulpa; a PSO franchise renewal vote in the City of Tulsa; and city propositions in Bixby, Coweta, and Sapulpa.

This past two pandemic years, a growing number of parents and citizens have become aware of how bureaucrats and unions have taken control of our public schools and appear to be running them for their own convenience and in support of their own ideologies of social transformation. School board members are too often rubber stamps for administrators, when they should be holding the administration accountable to run a school district in accordance with the community's values and priorities. Tulsa's school board majority has been quick to insulate the superintendent from any consequences of her mismanagement by extending her contract beyond the reach of newly elected board members.

Groups like Parent Voice Oklahoma and their Tulsa chapter are organizing to elect better board members. It's all well and good for the legislature to ban indoctrination in accord with Critical Race Theory/Intersectionality and to ban mask mandates in schools (most countries didn't impose masks on school children), but we need good school board members to ensure that district administrators not only comply but cooperate with these democratic expressions of community values. If every district had a majority of good school board members who reflect community values, we might not need state laws to keep the public school administrators from going off the rails.

This year voters in the Tulsa school district could reclaim community control over our schools. In 2020, District 6 voters unseated a 24-year seat-warmer and elected Dr. Jerry Griffin, an experienced educator who is not shy about asking challenging questions politely and proposing ideas for improvement. In 2021, Pastor Jeannettie Marshall was re-elected in District 3, despite the massive funding advantage enjoyed by her opponent, who was backed by donors connected with the foundations that exert considerable control over TPS. Marshall had been a lone voice on the school board, the only member willing to vote against the 2020 scheme to extend controversial and unsuccessful Superintendent Deborah Gist's contract before newly elected board members could have a say in the matter. Two more seats could cinch a majority of board members committed to accountability and genuine educational excellence.

Longtime Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris is running for the open seat in Tulsa School Board Office No. 7, currently held by Suzanne Schrieber. Harris served 16 years as District Attorney for Tulsa County, retiring at the end of his term in 2014. Harris then taught constitutional law and criminal procedure at ORU for five semesters. After finishing first in the 2018 Republican primary to replace Congressman Jim Bridenstine, Harris fell short in an expensive runoff race with Kevin Hern.

In 2017, Harris served as chairman of the Tulsa County Sheriff's Foundation, raising money for body cameras for patrol deputies. Sheriff Vic Regalado hired Harris in 2019 as general counsel for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, where his responsibilities include civil rights and compliance issues at the county jail, covering issues as wide-ranging as keeping rival gangs separate, religious requirements for food and clergy, and access to health care, education, and a law library.

Harris was an advocate for children throughout his career in the District Attorney's office. As First Assistant DA under David Moss, Harris was part of a three-man team that developed a better way to care for children who came into contact with the criminal justice system as victims or witnesses. During Bill LaFortune's time as DA, Harris created a dedicated prosecution team for crimes against children with specialists in every courtroom, with Harris serving as the first Director of the Crimes Against Children Division.

Tim and his wife Tiari met as students at ORU and have been married for 37 years. They have two adult children and, as of a couple of months ago, a grandchild.

Harris had been praying about an opportunity to return to public service in some form or fashion, and on the second day of the filing period he heard a news report on the radio about an open seat on the TPS. After learning that it was for the district where he lives, he consulted with his wife, looked up the filing requirements, and put his name in.

As he delves into the details of curriculum and operations at TPS, Harris sees that this conservative city in the heart of the Bible Belt is being hit by the same wave of corrosive ideology, educational fads, and mismanagement that is sweeping over the rest of the nation. Curricula shaped by critical race theory and Marxist economics are taking the place of the skills and knowledge Tulsa students need to succeed. Harris told me about curriculum aimed at K-12 students that decries "environmental racism" and the "oppressive nature of standard English."

Meanwhile in many classrooms, teachers are reduced to proctoring students as they do lessons on screens. The result: 60% of 4th graders not reading at a 4th grade level. In 2019, state assessments showed that only 18% of TPS students were "proficient" or "advanced." And yet we have a highly paid superintendent that continues to be granted contract extensions by a weak, pliable school board. During his time in the DA's office, Tim Harris noticed that many of the criminals who came through Tulsa's courtrooms had passed through Tulsa Public Schools without being educated beyond an elementary level. While a lack of knowledge doesn't excuse crime, it makes it much more difficult to obtain honest employment, and a school system that fails to teach self-control along with basic knowledge further damages its graduates' chances to succeed.

As a prosecutor who has seen the tragic results of failed public schools, as a long-time volunteer serving young people, as an administrator with responsibility over a complex organization, and as a devout Christian husband, father, and grandfather, Tim Harris has the values and experience we need on the Tulsa school board. I urge you to vote for him on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, and to volunteer your time to help get him elected.