By: Storme Jones
OKLAHOMA CITY -
An Oklahoma Senate Committee took the first step in limiting the governor s ability to fire state education board members Tuesday.
In December, Governor Kevin Stitt removed State Board of Education Member Kurt Bollenbach. When asked for an explanation on the removal, the governor’s office noted members serve at the pleasure of the governor. Tuesday a committee took a step to change that.
“When someone gets appointed by the governor and approved by this body, I think there needs to be cause for them to be removed before their term is up,” Sen. J.J. Dossett, D-Owasso, said.
(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)
Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what s goin down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of government gets done, and where the priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building burned.
We begin in Louisiana, where years of overdevelopment and industrial pollution have placed in jeopardy the Atchafalaya River Basin, the largest river basin in the country. Governor John Bel Edwards has begun what he hopes is a major effort to save the unique ecology of the region. From NOLA.com:
The executive order directs the task force to submit an initial report by Sept. 1, 2021 that will focus on how to best manage navigation, flood control, economics and restoration within the basin and using the basin’s resources along the coast. The report will be submitted to the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The report also is expected to address sources of funding for basin projects an
Gov. Kevin Stitt s firing of State Board of Education member Kurt Bollenbach and nomination of Melissa Crabtree to replace him is an embarrassment.
This firing suggests that having a well-rounded, thoughtful state board, which allows for dissenting opinions, is not desired or respected by our governor.
Bollenbachâs firing appears, in part, to be based on his courageous support of the wearing of masks in public schools.
Our governor has been unwilling to mandate the wearing of masks in schools or across the state, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that it saves lives.
Additionally, Bollenbachâs firing appears to be in retaliation for backing an effort to recover $11 million in public funds from a state charter school.
Free Market Friday: Character assassination By: Jonathan Small Guest Columnist December 10, 2020
Jonathan Small
During U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, critics portrayed him as a drunk and a rapist.
Fortunately, those attacks failed and Kavanaugh was confirmed. Unfortunately, the character-assassination tactics used against Kavanaugh have now been transported to Oklahoma.
Gov. Kevin Stitt recently removed Kurt Bollenbach from the State Board of Education and named Melissa Crabtree of Enid as his replacement.
Bollenbach aggressively and vocally supported efforts to bar Christian schools from serving children who receive scholarships through a state program, citing Oklahoma State Department of Education regulations against “discriminating” based on “religion” and “sexual orientation.” Put simply, Christian schools would have to hire atheists and abandon historic Christian teachings to participate.