Get rid of buses, use textbooks as shields: William Crozier returns as superintendent candidate

Editor’s note: This is the second of a series of profiles on the seven Republican candidates seeking the party’s nomination for state superintendent. Profiles will run in alphabetical order.

A repeat Republican candidate for state superintendent, who suggested using textbooks as shields in school shootings, will appear on the June 16 primary ballot again.

William Crozier, 79, is on his third run for the office, which leads the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the state’s top school board. 

Crozier, of Union City, unsuccessfully challenged longtime Superintendent Sandy Garrett in 2006 and made a second bid for the post in 2022, failing to advance past the Republican primary.

In an interview in which he brought up a wide range of topics from the Vietnam War to the Articles of Confederation, Crozier said the state should “get rid of all the buses” and provide neighborhood schools instead. He suggested multiple ways schools could protect from lone-wolf gunmen, including by using textbooks as shields from bullets.

The Air Force and Army veteran said he’s worked a variety of jobs, including at the Tax Commission, Tinker Air Force Base and as an accident investigator for the Department of Transportation, but is now unemployed.

He said he took and passed a special education test to teach but wasn’t hired “because I’m a Christian Republican.”

“They wouldn’t hire me because I was too old, too smart for them and knew where they were stealing the money,” he said. “So, that needs to be cleaned up really bad.”

Oklahoma should aim to compete with schools in north Texas by teaching students to read and by preparing them “to do anything they want to do, whether it’s build an airplane, spaceships or play in a theater,” he said.

He is one of seven Republicans seeking the state superintendent post, along with Peggs Public Schools Superintendent John Cox, former school district and CareerTech administrator Robert Franklin, state Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, Southern Nazarene University senior research analyst Debra Herlihy, state Sen. Adam Pugh and high school teacher James Taylor.

Two Democrats, former Tulsa Board of Education member Jennettie Marshall and retired El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Craig McVay, round out the nine-candidate field. 

Former state Superintendent Ryan Walters, a Republican, resigned from office Sept. 30 to lead an anti-teacher-union organization. Lindel Fields, who was appointed to finish Walters’ term, did not file as a candidate running for the seat.