Reforming Oklahoma’s Failing Schools: Escaping the Prussian Indoctrination Model with Practical Skills Over Endless Taxpayer Dollars
Empowering Oklahoma’s Youth: Hands-On Education for Self-Reliance in a Low-Tax Future, Free from Historical Chains of Compliance
By Marven Goodman,
Investigative Report
January 14, 2026 — In the Sooner State, Oklahoma’s public education system stands as a stark reminder of big government’s failures, a relic of a centuries-old model imported from authoritarian roots that prioritizes conformity over creativity. Despite spending over $11,000 per pupil annually, part of a national average exceeding $18,600, our students continue falling behind, saddled with curricula that echo the rigid, obedience-focused designs of the past, emphasizing abstract theories over the tools needed for real-world success. The latest 2025 NAEP results paint a grim picture: eighth-grade science scores have plummeted, while 12th-grade math and reading proficiency hovers at dismal lows, with only 22% proficient in math and 35% in reading, down from pre-pandemic levels.
This isn’t merely a funding shortfall; nationally, we’re approaching $1 trillion in K-12 spending, with eight states topping $25,000 per student, yet outcomes continue to decline. In Oklahoma, where low taxes fuel our energy-driven economy, we can’t afford to keep subsidizing a bloated bureaucracy that delivers debt and disappointment instead of opportunity. As conservatives, we know the answer lies in limited government intervention: revamping curricula to emphasize practical skills, fostering school choice, and rejecting calls for more taxpayer bailouts. But to truly understand the depth of this crisis, we must trace its origins back to the Prussian public school model, a system engineered for indoctrination and control, that was deliberately transplanted to American soil and embedded in states like Oklahoma, perpetuating a cycle of compliance rather than innovation.
America’s public education system is in crisis, and no amount of additional taxpayer dollars will fix it. Despite spending over $20,000 per pupil annually, among the highest in the developed world, student performance continues to decline. The latest Oklahoma Report Card results show absolutely no recorded reading scores (telling), and math scores at historic lows, with very low percentages of students proficient in core subjects. This is not the fault of the State Superintendent, but rather that of the local school board administration outsourcing their responsibilities to their district superintendent.
This isn’t a funding problem; it’s a curriculum problem rooted in misguided priorities that push abstract academics while neglecting real-world skills. Our investigation reveals decades of federal overreach and union-driven mandates have eroded vocational programs, leaving graduates ill-equipped for modern demands. Yet this dysfunction runs deeper, stemming from the very foundation of our modern public schools: the Prussian model, a state-controlled apparatus designed not for enlightenment but for molding obedient citizens in service to authority.
The original Prussian public school model emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries under the absolutist monarchy of Prussia, where education was weaponized as a tool for national strengthening amid military and social upheavals. Its cornerstone was Frederick the Great’s Generallandschulreglement of 1763, drafted by Johann Julius Hecker, a Pietist educator who founded the first Prussian teachers’ seminary in 1748. This decree mandated tax-funded primary education for children aged 5 to 13 or 14, establishing Prussia as a pioneer in compulsory schooling, long before similar systems in France or Britain. Earlier roots trace to 1717 under King Frederick William I, who enforced universal attendance through fines and penalties, envisioning the kingdom as a massive schoolroom to instill military-like discipline and loyalty.
Following Prussia’s devastating defeat in the 1806 Battle of Jena–Auerstedt during the Napoleonic Wars, reforms intensified. Intellectuals like Johann Gottlieb Fichte, in his 1807 Addresses to the German Nation, called for education to forge unified, loyal personalities, though in practice, it veered toward rote obedience. Wilhelm von Humboldt, as education minister in 1809, implemented the Königsberger Schulplan, blending neohumanist ideals of broad knowledge with state loyalty. Contributors like Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow and Heinrich Julius Bruns established model schools emphasizing rural discipline, while Friedrich Ludwig Jahn added physical education to cultivate national vigor.
The system’s tripartite structure reinforced social hierarchies: the Volksschule (elementary school) for the masses, an eight-year grind focused on basics like reading, writing, arithmetic, music, religious instruction, and strict discipline to produce punctual, hierarchical workers and soldiers; the Realschule catered to the bourgeoisie with practical sciences and languages for industry; and the Gymnasium prepared elites with classical studies for leadership. Key elements included state-certified teachers trained in seminaries (from 1810), a uniform national curriculum, extended school years, and exams like the Abitur (mandatory by 1812). Funded by taxes and overseen by the state, it drew from Enlightenment, Pietist, and militaristic influences, reducing illiteracy while unifying the nation culturally, imposing High German to quell fragmentation, and preventing rebellion by embedding loyalty to the state.
Critics rightly label it a “factory-model” system, prioritizing discipline over individual thought, rooted in absolutist ideas like submission to authority. Its purpose: to manufacture obedient, productive subjects in a militaristic society, countering social unrest like peasant rebellions in the 1740s–1750s. By the 1830s, it was entrenched, blending secular and religious elements to foster mission-oriented citizens, but at the cost of suppressing dissent.
This indoctrination model didn’t stay in Europe; it was imported to the United States in the mid-19th century amid industrialization, immigration, and societal shifts. Before then, American education was decentralized, handled by families, communities, churches, or tutors, with no uniform compulsion. The pivot came via Horace Mann, Massachusetts legislator and first Secretary of the Board of Education (1837). In 1843, Mann visited Prussia and was captivated by its state-run schools, viewing them as a mechanism to impose order on America’s diverse populace. He championed “common schools”: free, tax-funded, compulsory setups that standardized age-graded education, stressed uniformity, and favored compliance over critical thinking.
Mann’s influence sparked Prussian-inspired schools in New York in the 1830s, with 12 model institutions. Massachusetts enacted the first compulsory law in 1852, mandating 12 weeks of attendance for ages 8–14. The model proliferated: Michigan’s 1835 constitution incorporated elements, and by the 1870s, states adopted it to assimilate immigrants and churn out factory workers. Industrial titans like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie backed it, seeing value in disciplined labor; Rockefeller’s General Education Board (1903) propelled it nationwide. By 1918, all states had compulsory laws up to age 16, with federal escalation leading to the U.S. Department of Education in 1979.
Progressives like John Dewey tweaked it for social aims, but the core, bells, standardized curricula, age-grading, remains Prussian, shifting education from voluntary and local to mandated and centralized, eroding community control. In the U.S., this model morphed into an indoctrination tool for social control. Echoing Prussia’s response to defeats, American leaders post-Revolution, facing uprisings like Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787) and the Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794), pushed education to delegitimize violence, funneling discontent into voting for order. Thomas Jefferson advocated such systems, but Mann’s version, critics argue, prioritized compliance, producing unquestioning workers. Industrialists exploited it to suppress radicalism and assimilate immigrants, with schools as state extensions fostering nationalism over autonomy. Detractors highlight its promotion of teacher authoritarianism and resistance to student-centered reforms, valuing obedience over innovation. While proponents claimed democratic benefits and literacy gains, evidence points to a legacy of ideological control, as noted in modern studies linking mass education to state-building amid conflict.
In Oklahoma, this Prussian inheritance is evident in our centralized, authoritarian-molded, one-size-fits-all public schools, a government monopoly that traces directly to Mann’s importation and federal mandates. Our system’s emphasis on standardized testing, rigid hierarchies, and abstract curricula mirrors the Volksschule’s focus on conformity, preparing students not for self-reliance but for dependency in a bureaucratic machine. For decades, we’ve poured billions into this setup, prioritizing college-prep for all while slashing vocational programs like shop class. The result? Too many young Oklahomans graduate burdened by student loans, often in the tens of thousands, for credentials yielding poor jobs, starting adulthood in debt traps we can avoid through reform.
Perhaps more startling is Section XIII-4 of the Oklahoma Constitution, which mandates compulsory school attendance for children between the ages of eight and sixteen years, for at least three months in each year. This requirement starkly contrasts with the contemporary educational landscape in Oklahoma, where education spans from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, encompassing 14 years of schooling. Historically, this three-month requirement was a nod to the agrarian lifestyle prevalent when the Constitution was drafted, where children were needed for farming during certain seasons. However, in today’s context, this minimum is not only out of step with modern educational standards but also with the practical implementation of schooling in Oklahoma, where the academic year typically extends to around nine months. This outdated provision further underscores how our system remains shackled to antiquated, authoritarian roots that enforce mandatory compliance without adapting to current needs.
Nationally, student loan debt hit $1.8 trillion by 2025, with over 3.6 million owing more than $100,000, highlighting the push for costly degrees. In Oklahoma, with median incomes around $60,000, this crisis delays home ownership and starting families.
Our investigation shows integrating practical skills can break this, preparing for trades and entrepreneurship sans federal aid or tax hikes, directly countering the Prussian model’s indoctrination by fostering independent thinkers over compliant subjects. It’s time for conservative reform: Ditch the Prussian factory model by shifting from money-throwing to hands-on education promoting self-reliance, financial independence, and problem-solving. Revive and expand shop classes, mechanical drawing, and building projects to teach tool use, blueprint design, and creation, skills building work ethic, teamwork, and pride, leading to debt-free trades. This combats the model’s conformity, empowering individuals.
These lay foundations for readiness: mastering budgets, business plans, and AI tools without debt or overreach. CTE research shows higher graduation rates, employment, and wages (10–15% more), thriving in apprenticeships or tech. States like Utah and Tennessee reinvest in CTE in low-tax settings, boosting economies. Oklahoma can leverage oil and manufacturing for apprenticeships teaching self-sufficiency, economic efficiencies, digital literacy, and constitutional principles, rejecting Prussian loyalty for free-market citizenship.
Beyond trades, we should teach our children about debt-free economics: budgeting for stability, business analyses, bank management, borrowing basics, and business plans, including market research and cost controls. Warn against taking out student loans, borrowing large sums of money for low-value degrees. Many succeed in apprenticeships or entrepreneurship debt-free. Entrepreneurship education fosters creativity and grit, improving scores and behavior via micro-schools teaching business without subsidies, aligning with Oklahoma’s innovative spirit.
In the digital era, prioritize literacy, coding, and AI, not as mandates, but tools for self-reliance. Teach navigation, cybersecurity, and other AI use, like prompting for code drafts (“Generate Python script for compound interest”), debugging, or automating analyses, building critical thinking without extra funding. Effective querying (e.g., “Explain photosynthesis for 5th grader with diagram”) enables self-education, bias avoidance, and verification. AI extends to physics simulations (fluid dynamics, quantum), enhancing economics (supply chains) and politics (game theory, voter models), applying rigor to fiscal challenges in low-tax societies. Florida integrates AI via choice schools, producing competitive graduates. Revamp civics to stress our Constitution’s limited government, rights, and self-governance, countering civic erosion, instilling freedom and restraint against Prussian absolutism.
This aligns with American values: self-reliance, hard work, fiscal responsibility. Vocational paths offer higher employment, wages, and respect for talents over one-size-fits-all. 21st-century skills like collaboration via projects fit without budget bloat, empowering locals over bureaucrats. In Mississippi, reforms via standards and curbed unions prove limited government works. Conservatives know, as Ronald Reagan paraphrased, government not the solution government is the problem. Break endless funding; demand reforms for prosperous lives. Our children deserve skills building families and nations, not debt.
In Oklahoma, lead with State Question 842: Eliminate homestead property taxes, saving $1,200 yearly for 1.5 million, unleashing $400 million in 2027, $800 million in 2028, $1.2 billion thereafter, for school choice, vocational vouchers, apprenticeship credits. This rejects overreach, igniting economic multipliers, trimming bloat, and forcing efficient partnerships, escaping Prussian indoctrination for opportunity engines.
Oklahoma conservatives: Rally to reclaim schools from big-government waste, prioritizing trades, financial mastery, AI innovation, and civics over failures. This is in line with Ron Paul’s advocation for self-education starting around 4th grade, with students becoming independent learners by 6th grade. Empower youth with self-reliance tools, projects sparking pride, plans fostering entrepreneurship, skills unlocking efficiencies, shattering debt, mandates, and indoctrination. Champion State Question 842 returning property taxation to home owners, to put families first, rejecting burdens of our over taxing economy. Action now: less meddling, lower taxes, education building wealth, not chains, because our children deserve liberty to forge success. The time for talk is over; it’s time for action that puts Oklahoma first.