By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
Editor’s note: This is the third of a series of profiles on the seven Republican candidates seeking the party’s nomination for state superintendent. Profiles will run in alphabetical order.
A hall of fame Oklahoma educator aims to become the next state superintendent, touting his extensive experience in public education.
Robert Franklin, 66, is one of seven Republicans running in the June 16 primary election for the superintendent post, which leads the Oklahoma State Department of Education and state’s top school board.
Franklin, of Sand Springs, spent much of his 44-year career as a special education teacher, principal, curriculum director and assistant superintendent in Sand Springs Public Schools. He then worked 15 years as an administrator at Tulsa Technology Center.
Since retiring from the CareerTech center, Franklin — a 2024 inductee in the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame — has been teaching master’s and doctoral-level courses on educational leadership at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa. He and his wife also provide childcare for their grandchildren, who attend public schools.
Franklin also served on the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board for six years, including four years as chair, overseeing charter schools that use online-based teaching. He was one of two board members who voted against permitting a religious charter school in the state.
Public education, he said, is a cornerstone of democracy and the connecting point for communities, but now its “workforce is in peril.” A yearslong teacher shortage has forced districts to rely increasingly on untrained educators, presenting what he called the greatest challenge facing Oklahoma public schools today.
The first step toward a turnaround, he said, is “we don’t have a state superintendent who makes things toxic and castigates public educators,” hinting at former state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ contentious relationship with teachers and districts.
Lowering class sizes and adding more specialists to address behavioral disruptions, especially for early elementary grades, would create “a totally different dynamic” for teachers, he said.
To boost the workforce pipeline into schools, Oklahoma could grow internship programs for high school students interested in a teaching career, add scholarship opportunities for education majors and offer tax incentives for teachers, Franklin said. If elected, he pledged to collaborate with various stakeholders, from tribal nations to higher education institutions, to generate more ideas.
Oklahoma’s new law that will have struggling readers repeat third grade is an “overreach,” he said.
“Until we can sustain our workforce and get our teachers the support that they need in regard to behavioral interventions and specialists to help them, we will not achieve what it is that the legislative mandate is hoping,” Franklin said.
Joining him on the Republican ballot are Peggs Public Schools Superintendent John Cox, William Crozier, state Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, Southern Nazarene University senior research analyst Debra Herlihy, state Sen. Adam Pugh and high school teacher James Taylor.
Two Democrats, former Tulsa Board of Education member Jennettie Marshall and retired El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Craig McVay, round out the nine-candidate field.
Walters, a Republican, did not seek a second term after resigning early from office Sept. 30 to lead an anti-teacher-union nonprofit. Lindel Fields, who was appointed to finish Walters’ term, kept his promise not to run for the position in the 2026 elections.
