Fri, 04 Nov 2022 14:59:26 CDT
The following Op-Ed was published on October 26th in the Southwest Ledger in Lawton- and can be found online on their website. Please note that the Southwest Ledger and the Oklahoma Farm Report are both a part of the Hilliary Media Group LLC.
A letter from the publishers.
Dear Readers,
Voters across Oklahoma will soon be choosing the state’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction- a position of great importance to the future of education in Oklahoma. We, the publishers of Southwest Ledger, want to take a minute to address the importance of this role, specifically to rural schools.
The Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction is a constitutionally established office, charged with running the Oklahoma State Department of Education and presiding over the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
The state superintendent is ultimately responsible for the state’s public school systems. It’s critical that the state superintendent serve all Oklahoma students, not just those in the larger, metro-area schools. As our state’s urban metro areas become increasingly more progressive and clamor for an ever-increasing share of the state’s education dollars, rural Oklahoma parents are all too often left out of discussions about the future of their children’s education.
More and more, we find those charged with making these decisions have spent the majority of their lives, certainly their professional lives, in the Oklahoma City or Tulsa metro areas. They just don’t understand rural Oklahoma, or rural America, for that matter.
We do.
We’ve been providing telecommunications services to rural Oklahomans since 1958. We live, work and play in rural Oklahoma. We went to school in rural Oklahoma. Our kids go to school in rural Oklahoma. Like many of you, we are rural Oklahoma.
We know how hard it can be to teach and maintain rural family values when our schools are forced to push liberal, big city agendas or face losing what precious little funding they have.
We believe Ryan Walters understands this, too. He understands us, because he’s one of us. In fact, we provide internet service to the same rural county in which Ryan taught public school.
We believe Ryan Walters will fight for rural Oklahoma schools, for rural Oklahoma values, and for rural Oklahomans and our children. As the clock winds down on the 2022 midterm elections and you prepare to cast your ballot for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, we hope you’ll ask yourself this important question: “Who best represents my family, my values and my way of life?”
Having spent the last two years getting to know Ryan at community events, the Lawton Rangers Rodeo and a handful of family functions, both on and off the campaign trail, we believe that answer is easy.
Ryan Walters is the right choice for state superintendent.
Sincerely,
Dustin J Hilliary Co-Publisher State Regent for Higher Education
Public School Parent of Keegan, seventh grade; and, Kipton, second grade.
Edward Hilliary, Jr
Co-Publisher
CareerTech Board of Education
K-12 Public School Parent of Christian, Riley and Keith.
