Truth Test: Candidate Joe Dorman Says Fallin Was Disastrous For Education

With one week left until election day, the frontrunners for Oklahoma governor are cranking up their ads, each trying to tie their opponents to big-name, unpopular politicians.

The Dorman campaign is running two ads making identical claims on education.

"I'm Joe Dorman. On Education, Mary Fallin is out of touch. She sided with Washington, D.C. bureaucrats on common core," Democratic candidate Joe Dorman says in a campaign ad.

That's "technically true." In December, Governor Fallin issued an executive order supporting common core standards in math and English - standards backed by President Obama and the Department of Education.

At the time, she said the Feds would have no specific input in the formulation of Oklahoma's standards. With criticism mounting, Fallin signed a law repealing Common Core in June saying federal overreach tainted the initiative.

"Her third grade reading test was a disaster," Dorman's ad claims.

We're giving this a "you decide."

Pass the test to advance to the fourth grade - the idea is credited to two state lawmakers from Edmond and Oklahoma City. Governor Fallin signed it into law in 2011.

After thousands of third graders failed the first test ever given, the Governor vetoed a bill to loosen its requirements. Lawmakers overrode her veto in May.

Dorman ad: "And Fallin cut schools by $200 million."

Again, "you decide."

Some analysts say overall funding is down $200 million between 2008 and 2014. But the largest single cut came in 2009 during the recession under the previous governor.

Governor Fallin continued multi-million dollar triple digit cuts, but has restored multi-millions in education funding over the last two years.

Even so, a new report says Oklahoma still leads the nation in education funding cuts since the recession.

But it's not the debate over issues dominating this newest ad. Dorman is doing his best to link Fallin with outgoing schools' superintendent Janet Barresi.

In fact, the most pointed of the ads features the controversial Barresi more than either candidate for governor, 14 seconds out of 30.

"Mary Fallin as my team member," Janet Barresi said at education reform at a 2nd District Republican meeting in McAlester last November.

"And I can tell you who I've got walking next to me and it's Governor Fallin."

"The words come from Janet Barresi's own mouth," Dorman said in a campaign ad. "How close she and Mary Fallin are when it comes to these reforms. They have been responsible for the poor things that have happened to education in the last four years."