Oklahoma Secretary of Education: Academic focus needed in Tulsa

Oklahoma Secretary of Education Ryan Walters is defending a Tulsa Public Schools board member who has come below fireplace after suggesting the district ought to focus extra on lecturers than social agendas.

In a letter despatched June 17 to Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education members, Walters wrote, “I ask that you stand with E’Lena Ashley and reject far left-wing indoctrination, not make a decision by mob rule, and do not allow the targeting of E’Lena Ashley as she steps into this key role. You should put our kids first in all that you do.”

Ashley, elected to the Tulsa college board in the spring, has drawn fireplace from activists for a publish she made on Facebook on May 26, stating, “How can we compete …” Under Ashley’s publish was a graphic on “what third grade children” are studying in China, India, and the United States. The China and India parts included pictures from superior math and chemistry classes, whereas the United States portion was of numerous emojis related to social points, together with the “pregnant man” emoji.

Ashley has defended the publish, telling a Griffin Communications reporter, “It’s kind of satirical, but it makes a point that we need to be still able to participate, and that our students need to be literate, able to do math and be able to function globally.”

Some activists have since demanded that Ashley be required to endure range coaching.

Ashley is black.

She can also be a single mother (one organic youngster and adopted fraternal twins) who has a bachelor’s diploma in behavioral science and a grasp’s diploma in rehabilitation counseling. Ashley has labored as a paraprofessional in a public-school system, labored with Tulsa Job Corps to assist younger adults receive highschool diplomas, been a supervisor at a ladies’s outreach program, and been a coordinator for the Tulsa Dream Center’s youth after-school and counseling packages, the place she assisted with feeding, mentoring, and tutoring younger college students with tutorial fundamentals.

On numerous social media websites, activists have known as for all Tulsa college board members to “receive training on gender, sexuality, and inclusion related to supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.”

2SLGBTQIA+ stands for “two spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual” with the plus-sign a catchall designation for added sexual orientations and gender identities.

Walters mentioned the decision to topic any school-board member to such coaching is ridiculous, particularly given the truth that Tulsa Public Schools has produced some of the worst tutorial outcomes in the state.

“It would be unacceptable for the Tulsa School Board to require or even entertain this type of targeting of a duly elected school board member,” Walters wrote. “It is unfortunate that educating kids has become so politicized. I get complaints from parents and teachers on a regular basis that our schools are being co-opted by liberal and socialist agendas—critical race theory, bathroom confusion, DEI, and social/emotional learning. We can do better, and we must do better.”

He famous that Tulsa “is a low-performing school district” and known as on Tulsa Public Schools board members to “stop emphasizing woke policies over student achievement.”

According to the outcomes of state testing in the 2020-2021 college yr, the newest obtainable, 89 % of college students in the Tulsa district weren’t proficient in any topic or grade degree examined. Only 7 % of third-grade college students in the district had been proficient in studying as measured by the state’s English Language Arts check.

“I am asking you to stop allowing the school board meetings to be dominated by these socialist issues,” Walters wrote, “and return them to making our kids prepared to tackle the world and their future.”