Stan Geiger

Cracks in the PEC's Foundation?

The political-educational complex---that unholy, you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours, alliance that has existed between politicians, the media and educators for years---is showing signs of weakness.

Lt. Governor Jari Askins is running for governor. She is currently running a TV ad. I've seen the ad several times. There is no mention of the word "education." There is no call for more money for schoolteachers. There is no call for support of SQ744---the educators' latest attempt at raiding the public coffers.

Askins is a Democrat. Askins is also a woman, and women seem to be more into the "it's all about the kids" nonsense than men. Yet she is not playing the education card. I find that fascinating.

Not long ago, we had a mayoral race in Tulsa. The Democrat in the race, Tom Adelson, even though the mayor's office has nothing to do with education, played the education card. In a public appearance, he even advocated housing subsidies for schoolteachers.

Let's see, according to Adelson, we should give part-time gubment employees a salary that beats the state average wage, we should give them free health insurance and we should give them pensions that can start at an early age and pay them for life. And we should make their mortgage payments for them, too. Marvelous.

Adelson, though a sitting state senator and a rich guy that reportedly spent nearly a million bucks of his own money on the campaign, got hammered. He got less than a third of the votes cast. The votes he got likely came largely from schoolteachers and their family members.

KOTV---to its credit---got on and stayed on the Skiatook Public Schools story. The district was found to have overpaid by half a million dollars for things like mop heads and trash cans. Instead of going down to the local Home Depot to buy such things, the district purchased them from some distributor in Oklahoma City.

It's pretty clear, in my view. The super had a deal with a crony. He routed taxpayer money---supposed education money---to his buddy in exchange for kicks. That's just one man's opinion, of course. But I'm not stupid enough to believe this was some kind of "overlook."

The school board---to its shame---did all it could to protect the super. He was not fired; he was put on paid leave. Citizens rose up and demanded the man be fired. Finally, he was terminated. But, according to reports, he's still getting paid through the end of this month.

Five years ago, I doubt KOTV would have put so much time and effort into the story. Fifteen years ago, I doubt the story would have been reported at all.

Other stories have hit the news in recent times. There was the story about the super in Marble City that embezzled a million bucks, and there was the story from OKC of the super that was using the district as his own personal ATM, charging everything to the district from cab rides to booze purchases.

You know how politicians work. They have their pollsters and their consultants and they analyze numbers in order to come up with a message they think might win the election. The fact that Askins is running a TV ad that doesn't mention education speaks volumes.

Is the public finally fed up with self-serving educators reaching into its pocket?

Quite possibly.

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