MSNBC
After Oklahoma teachers walked out of their schools earlier this year to demand higher pay and increased school funding, many vowed to challenge lawmakers who opposed their demands—including a large, organized cohort now running for office.
This year Oklahoma saw 112 current or former teachers and family members of teachers run for local, state, and federal office—up even from the considerable “teacher caucus” of 2016, when at least thirty-two educators competed in state elections. While the majority of the 2016 teacher caucus candidates were defeated in the primary and November elections, indications are that this year’s electoral effort, fueled by the walkout, will fare better.
More than seventy of those candidates in the education sphere who ran for office this year advanced in primary elections. Conversely, of the nineteen House of Representatives members who voted against tax hikes to fund schools during the walkout and massive rallies at the Oklahoma capitol earlier this year, only three made it through the primaries without a run-off.
So what might teachers’ professional experience bring to politics? And does it translate into respectful and productive dialogue across party lines?
In phone interviews and emails, two educators-turned-political candidates gave me intriguing answers about the way their skills as educators can be applied to politics.
Oklahoma City’s Carri Hicks is a seven-year veteran teacher with two masters degrees who takes home an annual salary of $29,000. She teaches fourth grade and leads STEM education camps, has three children and filed for office carrying her eight-week-old baby. She began her career at a community school in an area with high rates of poverty. She also worked for the United Way, which partners with Oklahoma City schools.
‘Not only were our officials uninformed, they were also unwilling to understand the persisting needs in education.’
Even though Hicks’ senator, Republican Ervin Yen, was seen as a moderate, he never responded to her attempts to contact him until she declared her candidacy seeking his seat. As Hicks explains it, her campaign was ignited by a conversation with Republican Oklahoma Senator Mark Allen, who serves on the state’s Senate Education Committee.
“He told me I was lying when I shared how many students were in my classes,” Hicks says. “It was very clear that not only were our officials uninformed, but were also unwilling to understand the persisting needs in education.”
Hicks is a union site representative who kicked off her campaign, she says, trying to convince a younger teacher about how unions and collective bargaining are essential to the welfare of her students.
Tulsa’s Cyndi Ralston, running for Oklahoma House Seat 12, has also been a union leader during her thirty years as a teacher. She recalls a time before the era of corporate school reform when she could listen to students, and shift the curriculum schedule in order to “teach to the kids’ interests.”
Ralston tells me this ability to adjust is an especially important skill for leaders at a time when the old-fashioned political playbook is often being thrown out the window.
Ralston notes that traditionally, teachers often had no more interest in arcane politics than legislators have had in classroom management methods. But she saw that pattern change during the walkout. In meeting after meeting, she saw her colleagues learning from legislators and educating themselves on lawmaking. They also learned how to “connect the dots,” and see how their low pay was tied to both the chronic underfunding of their students’ classrooms and the Republican majority’s starvation of essential services for children.
During the walkouts, many teachers were ‘brushed off, if not outright lied to’ by lawmakers, says one teacher now running for office.
During the walkouts, many teachers were “brushed off, if not outright lied to” by lawmakers, says Ralston. Kevin McDougle, the Republican legislator she’s now challenging, became the face of that disrespect when he gained national attention for going on Facebook Live video criticizing teachers.
“I’m not voting for another stinking measure when they’re acting the way they’re acting,” McDougle, said in the recording. “Go ahead, be pissed at me if you want to.”
According to Ralston, her fellow teachers repeatedly said things like, “I’ve been a Republican all my life and I had no idea. They won’t listen.” They were particularly horrified by the treatment of former House minority leader, Democrat Scott Inman. A full gallery of teachers watched as Inman’s motions in support of education funding were disdainfully tabled.
For decades, Oklahoma teachers have kept their heads down, focused on the job, and mostly tried to stay out of politics. The Carri Hicks campaign compiled County Election Board data indicating that just 1 in 5 teachers in her senate district voted in the last presidential election.
“In order to craft long-term solutions for public education, it starts by holding each other accountable for voting, and voting for candidates that represent our self-interests,” Hicks says. “For teachers, that means flipping that statistic to 5 in 5 voting in the upcoming elections, and staying engaged in the political process.”
Now that they are fighting back, maybe educators can teach the broader public the civics lessons that we give our students. The skills cultivated in schools that have been under siege in recent years could become invaluable assets for our troubled society.