FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, September 25, 2014

CONTACT: Alex Kaplan, Joe Dorman for Oklahoma 

press@joedorman.com | 405-971-4563

www.JoeDorman.com

DORMAN CALLS REHIRING OF CTB/MCGRAW-HILL “MIND-BOGGLING”

Yet Another Example of Fallin & Barresi’s Failed Leadership

  

OKLAHOMA CITY – Joe Dorman, Democratic nominee for governor, said the proposed no-bid contract from the State Department of Education with CTB/McGraw-Hill is harmful for Oklahoma’s education system and exemplifies an anti-education agenda run amok.

“Janet Barresi’s decision to renew with CTB/McGraw Hill is mind-boggling and a reckless use of taxpayer dollars,” said Dorman. “This is a firm that botched the state writing tests not one, but two years in a row, and now Barresi wants to hire them again? She is completely tone-deaf to the needs of Oklahoma educators and children.”

Continued Dorman, “Mary Fallin shares the same failed education policies of Janet Barresi and has, in lockstep with Barresi, dug Oklahoma’s education system into a ditch with terrible ‘Fal-esi’ policies and blatant cronyism. Under their policies, these writing tests are supposed to be used for the A-F school grading system. There is no possible way to view that system as legitimate when it relies on these bungled tests. Clearly nothing — parents, educators, academic studies, facts — will get in the way of Fallin and Barresi’s Washington-bureaucrat agenda. They are dangerously out of touch with Oklahomans.”

Dorman said this whole fiasco is why Oklahoma must eliminate high states testing and elect a real pro-education official into the Governor’s office. 

“To provide an education system that helps our students and enjoys the full confidence of Oklahomans, we must get rid of high-stakes testing,” said Dorman. “Under my ‘Classrooms First’ plan, we will instead use the ACT to measure the progress of students, and we will use the money that went to CTB/McGraw-Hill for remediation. My administration will also never hire a company that has failed our students twice. Oklahomans deserve a Governor who will take the lead on fixing the failed policies of the last four years and create real solutions for our education system. Mary Fallin has failed our students, and she’s only making the problems worse. It’s time Oklahoma fire her on November 4th, just as they did with Janet Barresi.”

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