{"id":35368,"date":"2022-11-17T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=35368"},"modified":"2022-11-17T10:11:18","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T16:11:18","slug":"it-had-to-be-more-than-just-teachers-and-their-families-voting-oklahoma-educator-responds-to-election-outcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/11\/17\/it-had-to-be-more-than-just-teachers-and-their-families-voting-oklahoma-educator-responds-to-election-outcome\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It had to be more than just teachers and their families voting&#8217;: Oklahoma educator responds to election outcome"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/1f8fc1c5-5ef1-4ccc-83cb-c80744194f95\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leading up to the midterms, throngs of teachers and education advocates rallied around democratic candidates for governor and superintendent. But after the ticket went to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Education Secretary Ryan Walters, some of those teachers are thinking about leaving the state altogether.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jami Jackson-Cole is a fifth-grade teacher at Duncan Public Schools and manages the Oklahoma Edvocates Facebook page, which is a community of thousands of teachers and parents around the state. StateImpact\u2019s Beth Wallis spoke to her about how Oklahoma teachers are looking at the road ahead.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beth Wallis: Jami, you\u2019re a prominent public education advocate and you were a figure in the teacher walkout. Can you tell me, how are teachers thinking about this moment?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jami Jackson-Cole: The majority that I\u2019ve talked to are just feeling really hopeless right now. A lot of teachers right now have their exit strategies ready to go. The only thing that keeps teachers teaching in today\u2019s political climate with everything that\u2019s happening is their love for the kids. But even now, a lot of them are saying that that\u2019s not enough to hold them.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: So you manage the Oklahoma Edvocates Facebook page, and I believe you had posted that you had gotten a bunch of messages from teachers the day after the election. Can you tell me about a couple of those messages that you remember that really stood out to you?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: Most of them are, &#8216;What do we do now? Will there be another walkout?&#8217; A lot of the ones I got are, &#8216;How do we get rid of straight party voting?&#8217; That was like, probably the most out of all of them I got, because we pretty much realized that this is what happened in this instance, it was straight party voting that took us out. So I think that that\u2019s been one of the main things that I think teachers are really kind of focusing on right now, is, what can we do to change that?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: I mean, Oklahoma teachers have recently had a history of organizing. Do you think that that might be on the horizon?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: I do. I have talked to some people about what we could do to do a ballot initiative. So there are some positive things that I can really \u2014 if I can help teachers understand, that there are a lot of us behind the scenes working to make sure that everything continues and that it\u2019s going to be okay.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: Well, let\u2019s talk vouchers. They\u2019re going to be big this session. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nondoc.com\/2022\/11\/03\/in-rural-oklahoma-kevin-stitt-calls-dark-money-attacks-unbelievable\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Governor Stitt and Secretary Walters campaigned on them<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We saw a bill that would have given families scholarships to pay for private schools. Tell me, how will those vouchers affect families in Duncan, where you work?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: Three words: rural school killer. They will absolutely decimate. I mean, the mass exodus I\u2019m already seeing? I put up a very informal, unscientific poll in the Edvocates group. It was 18% said they are going to leave because of the election. And I think if we lose 20% or more of our workforce, it is going to decimate public schools.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: Well, a big part of this recent campaign was about parents\u2019 rights and what you as a teacher are talking about in the classroom. Can you talk to me a little bit about how these conversations affect your teaching?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: The thing is, trying to pit educators against parents, it\u2019s so divisive. We are a team. I am a team with every single one of my parents. And I can tell you, I teach fifth grade math and you would not believe how many parents I get saying, &#8216;I don\u2019t know how to do this.&#8217; And it\u2019s okay! It\u2019s okay, we\u2019ll figure it out when they get to school tomorrow. So, you know, thinking that a parent knows how to teach a specialized field, parents who have kids who are in AP Physics, or you know, different things like that. We are the professionals. We are the experts. I went to school to learn how to educate your child, you know?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: Well, and there\u2019s been a lot of national rhetoric, especially during this election season, about indoctrination \u2014<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: [laughs] I have to laugh because my goodness, if I could indoctrinate them, they would all be bringing me Dr. Pepper and chocolate bars every single day. If I was indoctrinating, everyone would know how to do fractions and I wouldn\u2019t have to worry about teaching long division to everybody. So yeah, there\u2019s no indoctrinating. There\u2019s also no kitty litter or litter boxes, so let me clear that up right now. We are not teaching CRT, I don\u2019t even know what that is. I don\u2019t have the slightest clue. The fact is, we have so many standards that we have to get through before we go in and take these state tests that I can\u2019t even stray off of what I\u2019m trying to accomplish just to get to all the standards I have to get finished. So there\u2019s absolutely no time for that.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: Does this kind of nationalized conversation about indoctrination, does it do anything to break down your relationships with students\u2019 parents?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: Not at all. They all think it\u2019s nonsense. You know, when they hear something like that, they just think it\u2019s absolutely ridiculous because they know that\u2019s not what\u2019s happening. Like, I\u2019m happy if a kid brings a pencil to school! There\u2019s not any nefarious \u2014 or anything like that. I don\u2019t know any teachers that are like that.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: So talk to me about what it\u2019s like to be on the ground right now while all of this is kind of going on in national politics, as well as nationalized state politics. Does it feel like the ship is sinking?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: Not yet. Teachers, for the most part, are eternal optimists. You know, we\u2019re the cheerleaders. And I think everybody right now is just kind of holding bated breath and you know, seeing what\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallis: Do you think this will finally be the straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson-Cole: I think I was just really naive that people were going to listen to us. But it had to be more than just teachers and their families voting. I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s going to get it. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to get it <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnhinews.com\/oklahoma\/article_8e89bdec-2af6-11ed-8277-cf580cb754a8.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">until their federal, their free and reduced lunches are affected<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Until it starts affecting parents and grandparents who are raising these kids, and they start seeing it hitting their pocketbook. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to fully grasp just what it is that\u2019s been done until it affects them themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leading up to the midterms, throngs of teachers and education advocates rallied around democratic candidates for governor and superintendent. But after the ticket went to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Education Secretary Ryan Walters, some of those teachers are thinking about leaving the state altogether.\u00a0Jami Jackson-Cole is a fifth-grade teacher at Duncan Public Schools and manages [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":30097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,16],"tags":[1479,855,1478,975,1477,1475,1476,1482,1481,1480],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35381,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35368\/revisions\/35381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}