July's hot topics: Ryan Walters, public broadcasting are columnists' top takes
On Ryan Walters
ANOTHER MESS: Walters is pushing a brand-new unfunded mandate ― trying to slash administrator pay and meddle with school breakfast and lunch programs. Guest columnist Mark McBride says he and everybody he talks to are fed up with Walters' nonsense.
YOUR TAKE: Was Walters acting within his authority to threaten reprisals against school districts that failed to provide free lunches? Readers speak out.
CLASS CLOWN?: Oklahoma Voice's Janelle Stecklein writes that Walters apparently has no idea — nor a care for — what providing free lunches is going to cost. He looks like a bumbling public official in his free food stunt.
WAKE-UP CALL: Walters wants to withhold teaching certificates from applicants who do not pass a "wokeness test." This isn't what we need, our editorial team writes.
On other education topics
BIG LEAGUE BARRIERS: For Oklahoma City to remain on the rise, guest columnist Brent Bushey writes, we must bring the same bold commitment to our public schools that we brought to building an NBA championship team.
QUIET CRISIS: Porn, weed use are hurting our boys, guest columnist K. John Lee writes. It's time to speak up. This isn't about nostalgia or moral panic. It's about neuroscience, accessibility and the quiet crisis stealing our boys' identity and ambition.
On national topics
SAVE PUBLIC TV, RADIO: The people's antidote to lawmakers' failures? Keep the 'public' in public broadcasting and fund statewide programming ourselves, our editorial team writes.
A Todd Pendleton cartoon tackles the topic of PBS, NPR funding cuts being approved by Congress. Will Elmo be just another casualty of the GOP culture war?
MORAL UNRAVELING: Guest columnist Kama Garrison, a former USAID employee in Washington, D.C., writes about the grief she is experiencing after losing her job with USAID — not just for a career, but for values and the moral compass she thought we all shared — truth, service and compassion.
PULPIT POLITICS?: Despite a change in IRS tax code, political choices should be determined by each individual conscience, not the church, writes the Rev. Poulson Reed.
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: July's hot topics were Ryan Walters, public broadcasting | Opinion
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