Text from an article in the Tulsa World

Piling on

by: World's Editorial Writers

The abuse being heaped on two longtime, capable and highly respected Tulsa County school administrators by critics who want to siphon public tax dollars away from public education is deplorable. Jenks Superintendent Kirby Lehman and Union Superintendent Cathy Burden are being attacked on several fronts because their districts filed a suit challenging a state law that they believe to be unconstitutional, one that takes tax dollars away from public schools to pay for scholarships - read vouchers - for children with disabilities at private schools, including church schools. Unfortunately, the suit included parents of children who are receiving the scholarships. First, Jennifer Carter, top aide to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi, in a Twitter message, called Lehman and Burden "dirtbags." Carter has not apologized for the crude insult and Barresi merely dusted it off as a "poor choice of words." Then an Oklahoma City University law professor, Andrew C. Spiropoulos, who is affiliated with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, an anti-public education group, wrote an opinion column for the Journal Record in which he referred to the "thuggish tactics of the school mafia and their legal henchmen." Then, it was revealed that state Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked the state auditor and inspector to investigate not only the Jenks and Union districts but several other districts in the county, including Tulsa Public Schools, which originally balked at complying with the new scholarship law. All of the districts have said they are now complying. The attorney general's office says that the investigation began before the Jenks and Union lawsuit was filed a month ago and is not in response to it. The attacks by some in the pro-voucher camp amount to piling on, and they ought to be toned down.