There’s a phrase on the lips of just about every legislative leader at the state Capitol this session, and that phrase is “education reform.”

With the election of a Republican governor, an overwhelmingly Republican Legislature and a Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction, the forces of change are sweeping through the statehouse in regard to education standards and funding.

And it is becoming evident these changes will be a bitter pill for the education establishment to swallow.

First, the election of a Republican charter school advocate to the superintendent’s position already has rattled the rank-and-file education establishment. The state board of education has made it clear it is going to have a contentious relationship with her.

The Republican leaders in the House and Senate are filing bill after bill taking on certain established education prerogatives, and the evil “C” word already has been introduced into legislation seeking to find ways to consolidate administrative services.

Of course, each of these reform ideas has obstacles in its way. After all, public education is the most established and institutionalized profession in the country. Public education has been controlled by teacher organizations (unions) and Democratic legislators and policies for decades. Although we believe most people involved in the education system are good people who care about children and about the learning environment, we also know there are many established procedures, policies and practices that have been put in place more for the protection of the status quo than for real educational benefit.

Let’s be clear. Not every reform idea has merit. There are going to be some ideas put forth that simply will not be beneficial to the education environment. However, so far, every reform idea put forth by the Republicans has been denounced by the Democrats and many in the public education establishment. And the rhetoric already has started about how Republicans don’t care about education and want to gut the education system; yet, education funding has either grown or been protected during the recession because of the Republican-led Legislature.

Winds of change are coming, and we expect those winds to sometimes resemble Oklahoma’s infamous tornadoes. But if educators and legislators and Democrats and Republicans actually will work together to try to home in on the good ideas, the students of Oklahoma will be much better served and our chronically low educational rankings actually will have the opportunity to move upward.