Craig McVay

Wages / Job Benefits Phase in salary increases tied to duties and cost-of-living adjustments, ensure competitive starting salaries for new teachers and fund stipends for hard-to-fill rural and special education positions. Education Adopt explicit, systematic literacy programs and phonics-based curricula; standardize math fluency practices across districts; require routine formative checks in K–3 to catch gaps early. Recruit, hire, train a retired teacher corps to administer and implement all assessments freeing classroom teachers to teach. Education Last place isn’t OK with me. We’ll move Oklahoma’s education rankings from the bottom toward the regional average within eight years. Launch a statewide, evidence-based roadmap with clear milestones, funding commitments, and annual public progress reports. Prioritize scalable interventions with demonstrated results and allow district-level flexibility for local context. Annual targets for proficiency, graduation rates, and college/career readiness metrics; transparent scorecards for districts and the state. Infrastructure / Transportation Ensure rural students have access to high-quality instruction and services. Invest in reliable transportation, strengthen child nutrition programs, support multi-district collaboration for specialized services and offer targeted grants to rural schools for staffing and technology. Reduced service gaps between rural and urban districts, improved meal program participation and reliable transportation. Education Create predictable, orderly learning environments that allow teachers to teach and students to learn. Increase access to counselors and mental-health supports, and reduce administrative volatility by insulating classroom practice from short-term political changes. Decrease chronic absenteeism and classroom interruptions, improve school climate survey results. Education Achieve print and cursive reading fluency, grade-level reading and foundational math fluency for every student by the end of third grade. Wages / Job Benefits We need to attract and retain high-quality educators by raising pay and reducing turnover.