ESA, School Choice Legislation Attracting Friends And Foes
School choice a sore spot for friends and foes alike
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
State Rep. Jason Nelson is like a cowboy with a saddle sore. The horse he’s on has rubbed a raw spot on him, but Nelson has to keep riding it to the end of the trail.
Nelson’s horse, in this case, is school choice, and it’s taken a piece of his hide. A lot of educators and taxpayers think his ideas are, at best, misguided and, at worst, an attempt to dismantle public education.
And they’ve let the Oklahoma City Republican know about it.
Not even the full-throated endorsement of Gov. Mary Fallin and the GOP’s legislative leadership, as well as several other interested parties, has been enough to overcome the objections.
But that could change this year.
With school consolidation apparently near death, funding irretrievably in the dumper and the likes of No Child Left Behind and Common Core fading from public consciousness, the education battle lines in the Oklahoma Legislature are coalescing around school choice.