'Biased, unethical': Educators upset about OSDE sharing school choice information online
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahomans now have access to more information about school choice, but it's raising some concerns among teachers. That's because you can find it all on the Oklahoma State Department of Education's (OSDE)website.
The page is basically a school choice FAQ for parents in the Sooner State. It answers questions like what is school choice, what are vouchers and so forth.
High school teacher Aaron Baker tells Fox 25 he's bothered by where this information is coming from.
"It's another example of chipping away of our democratic institutions that are our neighborhood public schools," Baker said.
Baker says he disagrees with everything the webpage says, especially the first sentence. It claims, "The greatest degree of local control remains a parent's ability to choose one school over another."
"In my mind, local control at its peak is a locally-elected school board," Baker said. "That page just started off wrong from the very top trying to make that analogy."
Language use aside, Baker finds it interesting how information about school choice is being promoted by Ryan Walters, the State Superintendent of Public Education.
"Keyword being public, so if we see a lot of what's on this page is not public."
In this case, it's examples like homeschools and private schools.
"It makes you wonder if we need to rethink that title."
Oklahoma Education Association President Katherine Bishop tells Fox 25 the following:
Those who have a responsibility over public instruction should focus on solutions that help the 90% of Oklahoma families who choose to attend public schools.
"If we invest in those [public schools] properly, and if we fix the inequities in the system through investments and through observing the historical inequities that have been inside the public school system, then we don't need to provide a plethora of choices," Baker said.
Fox 25 reached out to Walters and the OSDE for comment, but we haven't heard back.
Other teachers who didn't want to speak on camera tell our newsroom they feel this webpage is biased and unethical.
For more local news delivered straight to your inbox sign up for our daily newsletter by clicking here.