Statement regarding the State Board of Education Meeting

Like many of you, we have been closely monitoring the developments at the Oklahoma State Board of Education following the decisions made during their March 25th meeting.

While much attention has been paid to those outcome decisions, the process by which those items appeared on the meeting agenda and were handled both in and out of executive session raises serious concerns from transparency advocates, including the members of Freedom of Information Oklahoma.

As such, we are issuing the following statement from our board president, Ted Streuli:

"The recent vote by the State Department of Education to settle a lawsuit that reallocates millions of dollars in education funding from public schools to charter schools once again illustrates the importance of following the state Open Meeting Act to provide transparent governance for the citizens of this state.

Freedom of Information Oklahoma supports the efforts by the OSSBA and others to investigate the process used by the board to discuss and take this vote, in addition to questions about the authority of the board to make the decision, and the constitutionality of the settlement itself."