Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History: The Story Of Oklahoma's Premiere Career-Tech System

Oklahoma has long been recognized for its premier career-tech education system. The difference between Oklahoma's system and those in other states is its unique form of governance and funding not found anywhere else in the country. To make this visionary system possible an amendment to the Oklahoma constitution was required. Amending Oklahoma's constitution was not an easy task and required support from both republicans and democrats, the governor, both houses of the legislature, the public and private sectors as well as the media. Such bipartisan cooperation seems unrealistic in today's polarized political climate, but it happened in 1966 because of the courageous and unselfish leadership of a few outstanding Oklahomans who had a vision of how their state could accomplish something in education that would be the envy of the nation. All the stars had to align themselves in just the right way to make it possible. This is how it happened.