College vouchers a defining situation in Oklahoma governor’s race

CHECOTAH — Chatting with a crowd gathered inside a downtown espresso store, many wearing Wildcat blue forward of a Friday night time soccer recreation, Pleasure Hofmeister warned that Gov. Kevin Stitt’s reelection would put the native faculty system — the guts of this small city — in jeopardy. 

“Stitt’s voucher scheme is a rural faculty killer,” mentioned Hofmeister, utilizing a line she has repeated many occasions on the marketing campaign path, this time in Checotah, a metropolis of three,300 in jap Oklahoma. 

In her race for governor, Hofmeister, the Democratic candidate, has introduced her anti-voucher message to small communities throughout rural Oklahoma, an effort to assault certainly one of Stitt’s core coverage aims and win votes in what are at the moment Republican strongholds. 

Vouchers, additionally known as schooling financial savings accounts, enable households to make use of the tax {dollars} allotted for them at their native public faculty for one more type of schooling, together with non-public faculty tuition. 

“Folks understand that this isn’t going to deal with the wants of colleges, particularly these colleges,” Hofmeister informed The Oklahoman, referring to rural districts. 

In a race that some polls present tightening, Hofmeister, the state’s high faculty official for the previous eight years, views schooling as a successful message in a state the place a decade of instructor shortages, program cuts and lagging educational metrics have many citizens dissatisfied with the state’s public faculty system.