Joy Hofmeister assails federal slap at Oklahoma-based education standards
Published: August 28th, 2014
Joy Hofmeister, the Republican candidate for Oklahoma state Superintendent of Public Instruction, issued the following statement decrying the federal government’s denial of a waiver.
She defended Oklahoma’s right to develop state-based education standards:
“In revoking our ESEA Waiver before the current academic standards review process could be completed by our State Board of Regents, the Obama administration has rushed to penalize Oklahoma for the repeal of Common Core.
“This is an example of a punitive overreach by the federal government that shows a lack of caring for our students, and I consider it an outrage to penalize students and children simply because the Obama administration is angry that our state has chosen to chart it’s own course on educational standards.
“This is a classic ‘Big Brother knows best’ approach.
“It is the right of a state to chart its own education standards. I have confidence in our State’s Board of Regents and their process to review our academic standards.
It is unfortunate that the Obama administration has shown a lack of willingness to work with Oklahoma children, their teachers and their schools.
“I have full confidence in our teachers’ ability to navigate standards and focus on student learning.
However, the redirecting of funds away from our school classrooms to outside supplemental providers is a terrible waste of our taxpayer dollars. I witnessed this waste in the early years of No Child Left Behind. Our children cannot afford to lose teachers and classroom funding due to this required diversions of funds.
It’s wrong and our children deserve better.
“I will continue my work to fight the federal over-regulation of this failed national initiative. We must focus on what’s best for our students.”