“We’ve got to start at the zero-year-old, that little newborn, to the five-year-old,” -- Gentner Drummond.
It’s the leaked audio that you read about first right here. It has since gone viral, from Libs of TikTok to the Mazzei campaign, and now the world knows what is at stake on August 25: a big-government plan, copied from New Mexico, that Gentner Drummond believes a coalition of legislators who are, in his words, “direct opposition to the president of the United States” will push through at Drummond’s request.
As he spoke to a closed-access meeting of presumed big-government allies, state Republican gubernatorial hopeful Gentner Drummond appeared relaxed and at ease among his audience as he succinctly summed up his education program in one compact phrase: “from that newborn to the 19-year-old.”
Yes, Gentner Drummond is coming for our kids in a way that will make Brad Henry look like Ronald Reagan, albeit Brad Henry was of a different time, when it took legislative tricky to get to the 4-years old, and the 0-year-old was still considered off limits.
Though Oklahomans are no doubt among the most determined in the nation in their belief that raising children is none of the government’s business—and possess the time-honored wisdom that, in the formative years, a child’s emotional development is greatly impacted when they are taken away from their parents—in the late ’90s and early aughts, determined leftists, led in part by Brad Henry (who, despite the moderate image projected by his campaign consultants, held firmly liberal views), helped push Oklahoma to the forefront of the early education movement with universal government-funded pre-K. Their idea? If the state can gain at least partial control of a child’s time early on, it can shape them in ways that make them easier to educate in later years.
At its core, it’s a foundational tenet of socialist thought: the philosophy that the collective can do what the individual can or even should not, and that includes the raising of children.
It’s a socialist approach worthy of Marx and even Lenin that, in today’s world, cloaks itself under the capitalist moniker of “workforce development.”
It’s an expensive approach that places a heavy financial burden on individuals, so much so that it afflicts society with the ills of socialism, yet its camouflaged nature ensures that capitalism takes the blame.
It’s an approach that, to this day, wins the accolades of the nation’s liberal elites: a red state that has surrendered the role of parents to government in terms of early childhood education.
During the Ryan Walters years, this created the hilarious dichotomy of leftists boldly declaring Oklahoma to be “50th” in education—based on the findings of a clickbait listicle known as WalletHub, an origin that’s likely unknown to most who frequently quote it, put a New Mexico-sized pin in this—while also pointing to Oklahoma’s now two-decades-long program of extra-early childhood education as a model for the red-state universe.
For a prime example of this intriguing dichotomy, one must view this 10-minute VOX report where a smug ex-legislator, Joe Eddins of Vinita, described the legislative trickery in which he engaged to foist the concept onto an unwilling populace, a concept that, now two and a half decades later, simply hasn’t returned the results the advocates predicted.
Keeping in mind that the Vox report hit the internet just as the state’s leftists were in a frenzy about the poor state of Oklahoma education and Ryan Walters, one can understand the confused reaction of left-wing Oklahoma Vox viewers who, as their comments on that video will reveal, are just now learning that the same left-wingers who controlled their state for so long were on the bleeding edge of left-wing educational theory.
But, as it turns out, Oklahoma’s experimenting with big-spending, big-government-funded early childhood education simply hasn’t worked out: t’s not to the child’s advantage to be taken away from his parents a year early.
But audio published by OSC on Monday shows that any notion that Oklahoma’s government should recognize this mistake, focus on keeping parents and their children together, or maybe just limit its tentacles to those who are four years or older isn’t at all palatable to Gentner Drummond, the would-be governor whose narcissistic, self-promotional gubernatorial aspirations have consumed so much of the state’s public-policy dialogue since 2018.
Indeed as an insightful aside, Drummond, in that exact same audio, now readily admits that his run for attorney general was simply a step on the way to the governor’s office, a way to “learn state government” in a way that Kevin Stitt never did.
That the state’s leading law-enforcement officer viewed his job as an on-the-job learning experience, as part of his campaign for another job, is of itself a shocking revelation that should rightly shake the confidence in state government.
And that Drummond didn’t disclose this plan when he asked for our votes for that office, instead clearly politicizing his term as a campaign operation, speaks to the fact that he can never again have the trust of the voters; but it does explain why those who have long observed Oklahoma politics have not, at least in the modern history of the state, ever observed an Oklahoma executive branch politician who has more politicized his office, at such great expense to the taxpayer, while, by the way, in matters of public corruption of state offices, always somehow manage to give a pass to those who are in positions of power.
But all of that, frustrating and costly as it’s been, will soon be relegated to the history books—a sad chapter in which the attorney general’s power grew at a shocking pace and the most self-indulgent politician abused his trust at unimaginable levels.
And while we will not soon roll back the expanse of that position—bad as it is—it is not nearly as frightening as what could occur should Drummond’s vision, as articulated to friendly audiences at what appears to have been a closed government employee meeting, come to pass: the idea that government must become involved when the child is a newborn.
Drummond suggested that Oklahoma should follow the lead of that infamous blue state, New Mexico, and move toward a universal child-care model beginning at birth. It is a proposal that is sure to delight the many investors in daycare facilities who would stand to benefit greatly from the massive subsidy Drummond is proposing.
They will make a fortune—at least until the next VOX story, which will inevitably recast them as the powerful special interests blocking a real government solution, namely pre-pre-K for three-year-olds.
Drummond told attendees that 60% of the child’s formation happens in those early years, suggested that 60% of Oklahoma’s children are not having their needs met, and, in a colorful quote that had it been made by Ryan Walters or any notable conservative, would have made its way straight to the national headlines, declared that Oklahoma kindergarten teachers are inheriting classrooms of “feral” children.
Drummond declares Oklahoma school children to be feral, and Ryan Walters was no doubt roundly mocked for wisely attempting to ensure the furry phenomenon wasn’t gaining traction at your neighborhood elementary school.
The absolutely fascinating irony of it all.
As the wise observer of all things Oklahoma governmental policy will know, this all leads somewhere, and Drummond was clear about that too. He described his communications with industry leaders, stating that industry says Oklahoma is short 50,000 skilled workers, and making it clear that he views the state’s role in shaping the future of children as starting when the child is a newborn and extending through their 19th birthday.
This is, for all intents and purposes, a vision for an Orwellian, state-managed world that puts the Gentner Drummonds of big government in charge of so many aspects person’s future, and it must be rejected in next week’s election.
Here’s the scary part: that big group of establishment legislators who have endorsed and are supporting Drummond, to potentially include your very own self-declared conservative legislator?
Drummond made it very clear to attendees that he views this group as courageous allies who have joined him, as he put it, “in direct opposition to the president of the United States,” and he claims it’s the coalition that will allow him to enact his legislative agenda.
And he’s not wrong: it’s a skill that Stitt never had—finding a group of legislators who share the beliefs and values of the governor, and allying with them based on principle.
These liberal legislators, once allied with Drummond, will give the establishment complete control of state government, and they are very likely to pass this agenda. But, those legislators who are embracing this should be careful what they wish for. They should imagine having to vote for enacting policies like this, facing a vindictive Drummond on one hand and a horrified Republican electorate on the other. It’s gong to be a miserable time to be an Oklahoma politician, and could lead to an incredible grassroots year at the polls in 2028, but the long-term policy damage to the state probably won’t be reversed any time soon.
But here’s the ironic part of Drummond’s plan.
Remember the “Oklahoma is 50th in education” listicle that so many have quoted?
Drummond has repeatedly amplified this claim in his own public communications since its release last summer, and his campaign website still links to the listicle as the source for his statement, “Oklahoma deserves more than 50th in education.”
Now, most assume this means Oklahoma is in last place. They assume wrong. That listicle ranks Washington, D.C., meaning that there is one state that ranks below Oklahoma.
Any guess as to the identity of that mystery state?
Here’s a hint: it’s infamously blue.
Yes, that’s right.
When Drummond suggests that Oklahoma should copy the model propagated by the policy minds of the well-known blue state, New Mexico, he is suggesting that Oklahoma model policy from the state that, according to the listicle—a dubious clickbait ranking system whose ingenious strategy of getting SEO juice has been validated by Drummond’s very own campaign site and Drummond himself—New Mexico.