Though the race to replace Sandy Garrett as State Superintendent has barely begun, the whisper campaign is already in full swing.
Supporters of Republican candidate Janet Barresi, an Edmond dentist, are suggesting that Republican candidate Shawn Hime, Superintendent of Enid Schools, is too closely linked to Sandy Garrett. Hime, who has not yet formally kicked off his campaign yet, worked for Garrett in the Oklahoma Department of Education before he became Superintendent of Enid Schools last year. He served as assistant state superintendent with responsibilities in the management of state aid, financial accounting, school personnel records, transportation, transfers and capital improvement departments.
The whisper campaign being led by Barresi's surrogates suggests that Republicans who want a clean break from the five terms of Democrat Sandy Garrett should not support Hime because he worked for Garrett.
But a simple review of Ethics Commission records shows that it is Barresi,and not Hime who has given significant amounts of campaign money to Sandy Garrett in the past. According to Ethics Commission records, Barresi gave $4000 to Sandy Garrett in her 2006 re-election campaign to defeat Republican challenger Bill Crozier, and last year Barresi gave $500 to Friends Of Sandy Garrett 2010 (her now defunct 2010 re-elect campaign). There is no record of any campaign contribution from Shawn Hime to Sandy Garrett.
Garrett is not the only Oklahoma Democrat that Barresi has showered with campaign cash. Ethics Commission reports list contributions from the Edmond dentist to Democrats Jeff McMahan in 2006 (in 2008 a federal jury convicted McMahan and following his conviction, he resigned); $750 to Democrat Scott Meacham in 2006 for his campaign against Republican Howard Barnett for State Treasurer; and $1500 to Democrat State Representative Jabar Shumate's reelection campaign.
To be fair, Barresi also gave money to many Republicans. However, for a candidate posing as an education reformer, her contributions to Shumate and Republican Lisa Billy ($1000) seem to be a contradiction as both Shumate and Billy both voted against SB 834 this past session. SB 834 was designed to give greater local control to the state's public school districts by removing many of the unfunded state mandates currently restricting the ability of local school districts to best decide how to use resources to benefit their students. The bill was vetoed by Governor Henry.
Comments
It seems that Since Sandy Garrett has been State Superintendent, test scores and ACT scores have dropped, or at best, been stagnate. SB 834 was a bad bill designed to make it easier to fire teachers. Not raise education quality. Education reform MUST include some sort of school voucher program.
Voucher systems are a dumb idea. Once private schools start taking public school funds, they become public schools as well. Remember that everybody gets vouchers, not just the family that has "great kids" in a "bad school". That means that ANYBODY can transfer to whatever school they want, lowering the quality of ALL schools.
What is a dentist doing running for Superintendent of Education anyway? Should we have somebody in that office that knows the ropes and has worked in the field of education? Believe me, I'm no fan of Garrett, but at least she knew what the heck she was talking about, even if she was completely corrupt while doing it.
Shawn Hime worked for Sandy Garrett two times. We need new blood in office that has a new vision of where education needs to go in Oklahoma.
I'm from Enid and Shawn Hime is screwing up our school system greatly. Voters are going to be asked for 96 million dollars in bond issues for capital improvements. We don't even have enough books for our kids to take home but Hime can brag about how he "saved 3 million this year." Well spend the money on the books you idiot and let the kids learn!
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