oklahoma

Here at ABCTE we do a lunch time book club of sorts. Every six months we pick a professional book to read and then discuss. We meet in groups so that I can get to know our great staff better and they can become more familiar with each other and me. We started with 7 Habits last year and had some great discussions on how we can improve ourselves. The current book we are reading is the Tipping Point.

Today in the Oklahoma House, Senate Bill 582 passed with a vote of 99 for and 0 against. A unanimous vote for the ABCTE alternative teacher certification program to be accepted in Oklahoma. This is pretty stunning as our program has, in the past, faced stiff opposition from the education establishment.

Yesterday we went around to all the House Education committee members in Oklahoma to ensure passage of the alternative teacher certification legislation SB 582. We had some very good questions from all the members. The most striking discussion with one of the Democrat members was that she told us that a math teacher/department head had called her and told her she had two math teachers who needed to be fired because students in their classes were not learning math. But she couldn’t fire them because she had no one to replace them.

It is not often in your travels that you get to witness an historic event. But I was lucky enough to be in Oklahoma this week when the 2009 legislative session started and it is the first time in the history of that state that the Republicans have a majority in the state senate as well as the house. Considering the political environment of the 2008 elections, this is no small feat.