When I helped start the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, it came from a simple conviction: strong schools are the backbone of strong communities. Investing in education is how we keep rural Oklahoma alive and thriving for the next generation.

But for years, I’ve watched too many of our leaders focus on everything except the issues that determine whether kids can read, graduate, and succeed. In the early days, it was outside groups pushing agendas that didn’t fit rural life. Now, the problem has shifted closer to home. Our politicians are more concerned about pl e a s i ng a narrow band of voters than serving the families who actually live here.

In communities like mine, people care deeply about values and culture, but we also care about results. Parents can debate whether certain books belong in school libraries or how faith should be reflected in classrooms. Those conversations matter. But beneath all that, what keeps most of us up at night isn’t the culture war—it’s that Oklahoma’s schools now rank dead last in the nation.

That ranking should disturb and outrage every one of us. It means our children will face steeper challenges and fewer opportunities than kids almost anywhere else in America. Yet too many elected officials spend their energy on symbolic fights, because that’s what fires up the 5–10% of voters who dominate our current closed primary system. Most of those voters don’t even have students in public schools.

Here’s the reality: in Oklahoma, almost all of our elections are decided long before November. For most elected offices, the only race that matters is the primary, and only a fraction of voters take part in that election. If your preferred party doesn’t have a competitive primary, or if you’re registered independent, you’re shut out completely. The candidates who make it into office aren’t chosen by the majority – they’re chosen by a small, highly motivated few.

In rural Oklahoma, that imbalance hits especially hard. Competitive general elections are rare, so if you’re not part of that small group voting in the dominant party’s primary, you never get a meaningful say. It’s a bit like having an election for high school class president where only the kids in the chess club get to vote. Chess is great, but those students don’t necessarily speak for the band kids, the FFA students, the basketball team, or everyone else in the school. Yet their preferences end up being the only ones that count. That’s how our current primary system works—it lets a narrow slice of the population set the agenda for everyone else.

State Question 836 would fix that. Under an open primary, every candidate appears on the same ballot, regardless of party, and the top two finishers move on to November. That simple change would force politicians to earn support from a much broader cross-section of voters. Instead of catering to the extremes, candidates would have to speak to the rest of us—the parents, teachers, and community members who actually care about how our schools perform.

If we want progress on education, we have to start by reforming the system that decides who gets to lead. SQ 836 won’t solve everything overnight, but it will ensure that better outcomes and common sense have a fighting chance.

Rural Oklahomans deserve leaders who represent our communities, not just the loudest voices in the room. Open primaries would help make that possible—and give every voter in this state a reason to believe their voice truly counts.