Not surprisingly, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and Democratic challenger Joy Hofmeister offered very different assessments of the past four years, and in particular the last two, during separate visits to the Tulsa World last week.
Stitt, seeking a second term in the Nov. 8 general election, said he’s already met or exceeded his campaign promises on most fronts.
“I wanted to bring that momentum and that bravado and that ‘Hey, we can do anything we set our minds to’ attitude that I brought to my business,” said Stitt. “That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of ... for the first time, people (have their) chest out, they’re excited they’re from Oklahoma, they say they’re from Oklahoma.”
Hofmeister, the current state superintendent of public instruction who left the Republican Party in large part because of her battles with Stitt and the state board of education whose members he appoints, tells a very different tale.
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“What we have with the governor is an inability to work with people,” she said. “We are at a tipping point. This is a reckless governor who is driving this state into the ground. He’s burning bridges, burning relationships that are required for us to advance as a state.”
Stitt and Hofmeister have often clashed over education, especially during the COVID pandemic. It is in those two areas — public schools and Stitt’s handling to the public health emergency — that their differences are most apparent.
Stitt gives himself high marks for the pandemic response and says taxpayer-funded private school vouchers, or scholarships as he prefers, are the way to perk up public schools. He said his approach to education is most influenced by Florida and its former governor, Jeb Bush.
Hofmeister said the voucher plans floated at the Capitol would be “rural school killers” and “Epic on steroids.” Stitt, she said, completely mishandled COVID.
“The governor churned through four state epidemiologists in the first year of the pandemic,” Hofmeister said. “The governor did not work with hospital administrators in a collaborative way to keep communities safe and that allowed them to meet surges within our hospital system.”
Hofmeister criticized Stitt’s decision to abruptly move the state’s public health laboratory from Oklahoma City to Stillwater, where it remains less than fully operational, and says he refused to listen to experts’ advice.
A recent Commonwealth Fund report rates Oklahoma’s pandemic response 50th (out of 51) in the nation, and most sources say the state suffered one of the highest COVID death rates in the nation.
Stitt disputes that.
“Nobody trusts the death rate at all,” he said. The 15,000-17,000 Oklahoma deaths reported by various sources, he said, are “not true.”
“That’s something I’ve been telling my Health Department: Just dig in,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense. When you’re telling people something, and you’re scaring people, it needs to be factual.
“People should not be saying they’re dying of COVID if they dying with COVID, or if they were in the nursing home or were taken to the hospital and were already on hospice, and then they tested positive.”
COVID might have been a contributor to those deaths, Stitt said, but it shouldn’t be considered the cause.
Others have made the same argument, but it is perhaps worth noting that, for whatever reason, the overall number of deaths rose sharply in Oklahoma and nationally while COVID was most rampant, according to the Center for Disease Control. And, the method for determining COVID deaths is the same as for determining other causes.
The disagreement between Hofmeister and Stitt over his handling of COVID seems to also illustrate differences in priorities and in leadership style.
The hard-charging Stitt built his own national mortgage business from scratch, beginning shortly after college, and for all practical purposes has always been the boss.
He had no government experience — had not even voted much — until he decided to run for governor.
Hofmeister’s background is more varied and includes 15 years operating an education-related business, time on the state board of education and eight years as the state superintendent.
Stitt said personal freedom is of foremost importance to him. So was keeping businesses open and kids in school during the pandemic.
“I’m very, very proud of how we kept Oklahoma open and free and safe and transparent in the data. We were top 10 in getting the vaccines out,” he said.
Stitt said he refused calls for both universal mask and vaccine mandates and prohibitions on employers setting their own requirements. During his administration, the Department of Commerce has risen substantially in importance, and he seems to enjoy talking about business recruitment and retention.
A lifelong Republican until last year, Hofmeister said she views herself as a fiscal conservative who leads collaboratively. She says her experience has given her an understanding of how business, government and education fit together.
“I’m making it very clear I am an independent thinker,” Hofmeister said. “I’m running as an Oklahoman, not a partisan. I believe in the values most Oklahomans hold dear. Common sense. Respect for one another. Working together — and actually getting something done. That’s what I hear over and over from Oklahomans I mean, that they’re tired of the chaos, they’re tired of the division.”
Hofmeister’s detractors, though, contend that Oklahoma’s public schools have not made much headway during her eight years as superintendent. The state’s National Assessment of Education Progress scores have been virtually unchanged for 20 years.
Hofmeister maintains that reforms she’s put in place, including testing methods and reporting, have laid a foundation for success going forward — providing the system is adequately funded and staffed.
During her Tulsa World visit, Hofmeister praised the Oklahoma Legislature for increasing teacher pay and overall funding after years of revenue failures and budget cuts, but she said it isn’t enough.
Hofmeister said bringing the state up to regional if not national per-pupil spending averages is essential, and she has proposed a $5,000 across-the-board pay increase to keep teachers in the classroom and to bring them back.
“It all has to work together,” she said. “You cannot have a robust economy without a balanced, thriving infrastructure, safe and healthy communities and world-class schools.”
Tulsa World Opinion podcast: When Oklahoma’s certified teachers choose not to teach
Oklahoma has 33,000 teachers who are certified, but choose not to teach. Ginnie Graham and Bob Doucette talk about the state's teacher shortage forcing districts to rely on emergency certifications and more. Plus, why are extremists harassing our county election board workers?
