
State Senator Mark Mann of Oklahoma City is making strides to shield public education from political influence. According to the Oklahoma State Senate's website, Mann's two proposed bills aim at transferring oversight from the State Department of Education to more specialized entities.
The first of the two, Senate Bill 374, would change who oversees the Accreditation Standards Division. As per Mann's intention, control would pass to the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability which would then, answer to the Commission for Education Quality and Accountability, as per the Oklahoma Senate. Mann is pushing against political tactics that have wrought "uncertainty and chaos" in state schools, garnered by the actions of figures like Ryan Walters, whom Mann accuses of weaponizing accreditation for his personal political agenda. "We cannot and will not sit idly by and allow him to continue to target schools and educators in order to grab the media spotlight," Mann said.
Senate Bill 556 addresses the system of teacher certification by proposing that the Commission for Education Quality and Accountability handle the licensure and certification of teachers. Under this bill, the Commission for Education Quality and Accountability would be responsible for crafting rules related to the issuing or revocation of teaching certificates, effectively displacing the current authority held by the SDE in this domain. Mann threw his support behind the measures with a clear objective in mind: “All children deserve a great education. These bills are a straightforward way to ensure the superintendent does not continue to use teachers and schools as pawns in his political games so they can focus on our students’ success,” as reported on the Oklahoma State Senate’s website.
If passed, these measures would not be permanent fixtures in Oklahoma's educational framework. Both bills contain provisions that would sunset their respective effects on March 31, 2027. By introducing such legislation, Mann is vying to bring a sense of stability back to the state's educational landscape, a landscape that has seemingly become fraught with political maneuvering at the expense of the teachers' primary mission, to educate.