Muskogee Phoenix - Dorman Says Education Is Key in Governor's Race

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By Unknown

A veteran Democratic state representative from Rush Springs who witnessed firsthand the Republican Party's remarkable rise to power in Oklahoma, Joe Dorman knew if he wanted to become governor, he'd have to find and exploit a weakness in Gov. Mary Fallin.

A longtime fixture in the Oklahoma Republican Party, the 59-year-old Fallin has never lost an election and has a roughly 5-to-1 fundraising advantage over Dorman.

She also is the beneficiary of GOP momentum that has helped Republicans to huge gains in the Sooner State during the last decade.

But Dorman believes he's found Fallin's weakness when it comes to education policy in Oklahoma, and he hopes to tap into voter frustration over myriad changes taking place in Oklahoma's public schools as a result of policies pushed by Fallin and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

"It is the lack of concern or the complete disregard for the impact that her policies have done to public schools," said Dorman, 44, a former staffer for the Oklahoma House of Representatives who has spent the last 12 years as a legislator.

"The resources aren't available in the classrooms. Schools have books held together with duct tape and there's not enough for kids to take them home at night."

Since her election in 2010, Fallin has backed a number of initiatives that have faced resistance from school districts and educators, like an A-F grading system for schools and high-stakes reading tests for third graders.

Per-pupil spending on education has declined dramatically in Oklahoma during Fallin's tenure, and Oklahoma teachers, among the lowest paid in the nation, haven't received a raise in seven years.

Evidence that voters are frustrated over education was on display in this summer's primary election, when another incumbent Republican -- State Superintendent Janet Barresi -- was soundly defeated, losing in every one of the state's 77 counties.

Like Barresi, Fallin was a strong supporter of new Common Core standards for math and English that became the target of conservative grassroots groups who viewed the new standards as an attempt by Washington bureaucrats to influence local education policy. But when the Legislature earlier this year passed a bill to repeal the standards, even though it meant losing flexibility over tens of millions of dollars in federal funding, Fallin reversed course and signed the measure into law.

Dorman accused Fallin of flip-flopping and weak leadership, but Fallin says her shift on Common Core resulted from listening to the concerns of teachers and parents.

"When I started hearing concerns about federal overreach ... I listened," Fallin said. "I think the public wants a governor that will listen to them."

Fallin has stressed that education will be a top priority of a second term in office and says she supports a pay raise for teachers.

"Hopefully our economy will continue to grow so we can add more money for teacher salaries," Fallin said.

On the campaign trail, which Fallin is hitting in a giant red RV as part of her "Mary on the Move' bus tour, the governor is hammering home an array of statistics that testify to Oklahoma's strong recovery from the recession.

Unemployment is down, income and state revenues are up, and Fallin says her efforts to push pro-business policies like workers' compensation and lawsuit reform are a big part of the reason.

She also managed this year to reach an agreement with the Legislature on a plan to cut the state's income tax from 5.25 percent to 5 percent, with a second cut to 4.85 percent, if revenue collections increase to a certain threshold.

Fallin's campaign has aired ads attacking Dorman as a liberal and linking him to President Barack Obama, including one ad in which an image of Dorman morphs into one of Obama.

Dorman acknowledges he supports expanding Medicaid in Oklahoma under the new federal health care law, a move that would bring health insurance to hundreds of thousands of working-class Oklahomans, but shrugs off Fallin's attempts to paint him as a liberal.

"That's laughable at best," said Dorman, who supports the death penalty and opposes abortion. "I think my views fall in line with the majority of Oklahomans."

Also on the ballot with Dorman and Fallin are two independents --Richard Prawdzienski of Edmond and Kimberly Willis of Oklahoma City.
The election is Nov. 4.

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