And in weekend news from the State Department of Education …
Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Sunday issued a formal opinion ordering State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters to hand over to schools the $50 million per year the Legislature promised to districts.
Drummond was working on the weekend to expedite the opinion Walters sought Aug. 12 after KFOR reported that the Education Department was refusing to let school districts keep unused money from the School Security Revolving Fund.
The 2023 bill, passed in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, directed OSDE to distribute $150 million over a three-year period for schools to upgrade their security.
Drummond questioned why Walters waited so long to seek guidance.
“This corrects the Department’s mismanagement that prevented school districts from receiving an equal distribution of Program Fund and an error that, in (Walters’) own words, concerns and puts at risk the safety of schoolchildren,” Drummond wrote.
The Tulsa World reported that in a separate letter to Walters, Drummond chastised the superintendent.
“Those wasted months have resulted in school districts not receiving millions of dollars in funds they could have used to bolster security and protect students,” wrote Drummond. “I pray that your failure to deploy these funds does not result in deadly consequences.”
Asked for a response, Dan Isett, a spokesman for Walters and the agency, told The Oklahoman, “I’ll let you know.”
The Oklahoman pointed out that Walters also recently requested an attorney general’s opinion regarding $250,000 for emergency inhalers the OSDE has yet to pass along to schools.
Last week, The Oklahoman reported the agency was sitting on $250,000 designated by the Legislature in 2023 to purchase albuterol inhalers and spacers for each of Oklahoma’s 509 school districts, despite pleas from House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chair Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Chuck Hall, R-Perry. Walters has also asked Drummond to weigh in on the dispute.
More worth reading:
More Remains Found with Bullet Wounds
The latest search for the remains of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims has ended with three more sets containing bullet wounds, investigators said. The three are among 11 sets of remains exhumed during the latest excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery, state archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said Friday. [AP]
Oklahoma 48th in Women’s Health Care
Oklahoma is a bad place for women needing health and reproductive care, according to a recent Commonwealth Fund report. Oklahoma is tied with Nevada for 48th, ahead of Texas and Mississippi, in the Commonwealth Fund rankings, which scored the 50 states and the District of Columbia on each of more than 30 measures of women’s health care. [Tulsa World]
Oilton Man Sues City
A 76-year-old man who was roughed up by an Oilton police officer during a March encounter has filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that the town was negligent in hiring the officer, failed to train him properly and is partly responsible for violating the man’s civil rights. [Tulsa World]
A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He’s got to ride that nag till it drops.
—Johnny Bench
Ciao for now,
Ted Streuli
Executive Director, Oklahoma Watch
tstreuli@oklahomawatch.org
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