Oklahoma education secretary departing for University of Texas

OKLAHOMA CITY — The top education adviser to Gov. Kevin Stitt is set to depart for the University of Texas at Austin.

Oklahoma Education Secretary Dan Hamlin will join the UT College of Education as its dean on Aug. 16, the university announced Monday. Hamlin, an education policy professor at the University of Oklahoma, is the fifth person to fill the key advisory role in the governor’s Cabinet since Stitt took office in 2019.

“I am deeply honored to join The University of Texas at Austin as dean of the College of Education,” Hamlin said in a UT news release. “The college has an extraordinary record of research, teaching and engagement with schools and communities. I look forward to working alongside its outstanding faculty, staff, students and alumni to advance the college’s impact across Texas and the nation.”

Hamlin referred further requests for comment to the Governor’s Office. In a statement provided through his office’s communications staff, the governor called Hamlin a “game changer for education in Oklahoma.”

“He has been committed to ensuring every Oklahoma student has access to the education that suits them best and has brought new, innovative ideas to our education system,” Stitt said in the statement. “He will be an asset to the University of Texas and the next generation of educators. I know he’ll still cheer for the Sooners, even down in Austin.”

The Governor’s Office did not respond to questions asking whether Stitt, who is term-limited after this year, would appoint another education secretary during his final months in office. Oklahoma’s next governor will be sworn in by January.

The governor chose Hamlin in October to replace former Education Secretary Nellie Tayloe Sanders, who held the role since January 2024. Stitt made the announcement in tandem with a host of changes to his administration, the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the state’s top school board.

Following the resignation of former state Superintendent Ryan Walters, Stitt appointed Lindel Fields to lead the Education Department along with a “turnaround team” to stabilize the agency. The governor’s own chief of staff, Tom Newell, joined Fields’ team in a similar capacity, and two other members of Stitt’s administration, Brian Bobek and Wes Nofire, were appointed as members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Hamlin’s tenure in Stitt’s Cabinet coincided not only with that reshuffling, but also with a legislative session that brought major changes in education policy. Most notably the Oklahoma Legislature passed stricter requirements for early childhood reading instruction, including a mandate that children pass reading tests to advance to the fourth grade.

Hamlin spoke in favor of the reading legislation when Stitt signed it into law, saying a repeat of third grade would be “a last resort after many other efforts have unfolded” in public schools.