05/10/2014
My Response to the Reading Sufficiency Score in Oklahoma City Public Schools:
The startling results are in and 28.9 percent of Oklahoma City Public School (OKCPS) 3rd graders failed the test. It is alarming and unfortunate that so many of the OKCPS 3rd graders are subject to retention due to the recent Reading Sufficiency Act passed by our State Legislature. Legislative leadership has created policies that catastrophically impacted our children.
We can wait and leave our children to the mercy of the legislature or we can teach our children how to read. I support the latter. Representative Shelton prefers the delaying and blaming approach. The Legislature and my opponent want to play politics with our kids, but our children are in danger of being left behind!
The cornerstone of my campaign is saving our children. This means teaching our children how to read. The cliché may be old, but the fact is “reading is fundamental”! The resources and the volunteers are already in our community to make such a vision a reality. We must put these resources to work and implement a community-wide initiative for the sake of our children.
That is why I have made the creation of a community-wide reading program the centerpiece of my campaign. I have spoken with retired teacher associations, alumni groups, community clergy, and little league coaches, knocking on doors and making phone calls in the District, and overwhelmingly, this seems to be the more favored and respected approach. We must teach our children how to read. Our failure to do so will only serve to place our children at a significant disadvantage going forward in their academic endeavors.
Please join me in my campaign to save our children by voting for me on June 24, 2014. Together we can save our children and rebuild our community. There is no need to wait another two years to start. My opponent knew about this reading requirement and the impending affect on our children years ago. His solution was to offer a packet to parents via email a few weeks ago. That was pitifully too little and terribly too late. We can do better than that. We have to do better than that! Elect Bruce Fisher on June 24th.