Stitt plans to combine Secretaries of State, Education

TULSA — Moments after announcing that the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year is one of four finalists to become National Teacher of the Year, Governor Kevin Stitt let it slip that he has plans to combine the cabinet positions of Secretary of State and Secretary of Education into one post.

The man who will fill that post, Gov. Stitt told KRMG, is current Secretary of State Michael Rogers, a former Broken Arrow Representative who was appointed to his current position last November.

Stitt was asked by a reporter how he plans to deal with the Oklahoma Department of Education under his administration, since it has its own elected official - State Superintendent of Public Education Joy Hofmeister.

“It’s a little different of an agency since it’s directly elected by the people, and so my idea is just to spend a lot of time with her (Hofmeister), ask her what she needs, continue to meet with the teachers myself on the ground, see what they need, give her the resources that they need.

“My Secretary of State is also my Secretary of State and Education, uh so we haven’t released that yet - I guess I released that just now,” Stitt said Wednesday.

He went on to say “it was so important to me not have kind of another barrier between having a Secretary of Education, so that’s why I have my Secretary of State and Education, so we can just bring Joy Hofmeister in close, just to give her the tools that she needs.”

Thursday, the Governor’s expected to sign his first executive orders, which sources in his office tell us will deal with his proposed realignment of state agencies.