Thompson: Fifteen Years After

If school reform in Oklahoma City succeeds, it will be a legacy of the cooperation that grew in response to the Murrah Building bombing.  Our union president, for instance, was with his students on a field trip to the nearby hospital when the casualities flowed in, and he vowed to never again push away from the bargaining table. At our best, a bipartisan educational reform coalition continued the community spirit and it is exemplified by the nation's seventh Educare.  Hard times, however, still damage our most vulnerable.  We have worked collaboratively to turnaround our city's Central Falls.  It even required new legislation authorizing the position of a full-time substitute.  And now, the nation's worst act of domestic terrorism since 1921 in Tulsa is a part of our curriculum.