Drummond wants subsidized daycare to prevent "feral children"

Gentner Drummond wants Oklahoma's children to be in government-subsidized daycare from birth to kindergarten so they won't be "feral."

That's what Drummond told attendees at the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education Summit on August 3, 2026, according to audio obtained by former State Rep. Jason Murphey. The conference is mandatory for all CareerTech teachers in Oklahoma. Both Drummond and State Superintendent candidate Robert Franklin spoke to the conference. Murphey has full audio of each candidate's remarks. On X, Murphey also posted a two-minute clip focused on Drummond's remarks about the state questions and about state-funded childcare. (UPDATE: Murphey has posted a detailed discussion of Drummond's push for universal daycare and points out that Oklahoma's 1998 adoption of universal Pre-K, first in the nation, hasn't produced the promised improvements in educational performance.)

Here are Drummond's remarks to the CareerTech teachers about state-funded childcare:

We got to start with the zero-year-old, that little newborn to the five-year-old. We know that 60% of the brain is developed in the first five years. And yet 60% of our children, households, where they are not being stimulated, properly fed, and not disciplined. And so what's happening to our kindergarten teachers, they're getting feral children in the classroom, right, where they're spending a good bit of their time on four or five kids at the sacrifice of all. So there's a plan. In Oklahoma, if you make less than the federal poverty level, you are eligible for daycare subsidy. That's $15,800. New Mexico, about five years ago, said we're going to raise it to four times. So $58,000 means you and your spouse can work at a fast food store and still get supplemental help to put your child in daycare. They like it so much this year, New Mexico took the lid off, but Oklahoma needs to start with four times. If we do that, we let these children get into a quality daycare center where they are fed, where their minds are stimulated, and where they are taught the essence of discipline to sit in the classroom. If we do that, after five years, we've got children showing up in kindergarten ready to learn and disciplined.

When Murphey posted the highlights clip to X, there were accusations that the audio was manipulated or AI generated. The full 27 minutes makes it clear that these are Drummond's words, and to confirm matters further, Drummond repeated the idea in an interview with Chad Warmington, executive director of the Oklahoma State Chamber.

Warmington: So tell me this. So from if that's the biggest issue for businesses, what's the governor's responsibility for ensuring that Oklahoma develops the workforce that our employers need over the next decade? How can the governor lead on that?

Drummond: No state has improved its position in education without the governor owning it.

I'm in a in a in a educ -- it's a keen hunt institute. It's a cohort of governors and those that they that they deem will be governor, and I've been a member of that for a year, and it's remarkable to see lessons learned across the states. For instance -- and you can go to my website drummondok.com -- and it's been there for 18 months but the education policy of mine is is being tweaked constantly but it starts with that one-year-old.

We are thinking, you know, our job starts at as kindergarten at kindergarten. But what's happening, folks, about 60% of our children are in households where they're not getting adequate daycare. They're with a elderly family member. They're sitting in front of a screen. We know that 60% of that brain's developed by five. And these kids are sitting in front of a screen. So their brains are not being developed. They're not being properly nutrition given proper nutrition. And they're feral. They're not being disciplined. So they hit kindergarten as wild banshees. The kindergarten teacher's distracted trying to manage that before she gets to teach.

New Mexico 5 years ago increased the subsidy for daycare from federal poverty level, which is where Oklahoma is today at 15,800, four times that. So mom and dad can work at a convenience store or in hospitality and still get a subsidy from the state. They liked it so much after 5 years they've lift the cap. their children. They have now five years. That one-year-old is now in kindergarten and they're sitting in the classroom and their brains are developed and they're nutri properly nutri nutriented and they're able to learn, right? They're ready to learn.

I'm sure it's no coincidence that early childhood education is a major focus of the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Drummond makes a garbled reference to the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows, a program of the Hunt Institute an affiliate of Duke University.

Oh, look! The George Kaiser Family Foundation is listed as a funder of the Hunt Institute.

Here's how the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program describes itself (emphasis added):

The Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program partners with senior-level political leaders who have the knowledge, skill, and will to be effective, equity-minded education policymakers at the state level. Named for renowned education governors Jim Hunt (D-NC | 1977-1985; 1993- 2001) and Tom Kean (R-NJ | 1982-1990), the national, nonpartisan Fellowship launched in the fall of 2014.

The Fellows are part of an elite group of high-ranking, elected state officials who have committed themselves to a nine-month immersion in the full education continuum.

Drummond is one of 29 fellows in Cohort 12, the current group of fellows, along with Oklahoma State Rep. Trey Caldwell, Chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee. The cohorts include politicians across the political spectrum, but they seem to focus on politicians either in an influential position or with the potential to climb that ladder. Previous Oklahoma fellows include State Rep. Jon Echols, the Republican nominee for Attorney General; State Rep. Rhonda Baker, who chaired the House Common Education Committee; State Senator Jessica Garvin, who lost her re-election primary to grassroots conservative Kendal Sacchieri; State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister; State Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, who ran unsuccessfully for State Superintendent this year; and Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, who was in the very first cohort of 15. Former Gov. Brad Henry is the only Oklahoman on the advisory board.

Here's the press release announcing Cohort 12 (emphasis in the original):

Cary, NC. - At a time when education policy has become increasingly polarized, a new class of 29 senior state officials is stepping forward to collaborate on a different path forward. The Hunt Institute today announced its twelfth cohort of Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows--a bipartisan program that has become the nation's premier training ground for education policymakers, with alumni now including 11 sitting governors, 2 former governors, and leaders from all 50 states.

The Fellowship brings together lawmakers, governors, attorneys general, and other state leaders who share a common goal: moving beyond partisan divisions to develop education policies that work for students. Since its inception, the program has equipped 292 elected officials with the research, strategy, and collaborative networks needed to drive meaningful reform in their home states.

By investing in America's political leaders, we're cultivating informed, motivated change agents with the influence to strengthen state education systems and improve outcomes for students. The bipartisan Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program:

• Engages Fellows with the latest research and insights on effective, forward-thinking education policies and practices;
• Creates space for open, respectful dialogue that welcomes diverse perspectives and fosters thoughtful debate on complex education challenges; and
• Connects leaders with peers and innovators across the nation who are driving meaningful reform in their states and communities....

"I'm honored to join the next cohort of Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows," said Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R-OK). "I look forward to learning from my peers across the country and bringing back proven strategies that give Oklahoma families and students the tools and opportunities they need to succeed."...

From December through August, Fellows engage in a rigorous curriculum facilitated by The Hunt Institute's policy teams. Activities include policy discussions, strategy breakouts, site visits and classroom perspective sessions, monthly webinars, and two in-person convenings to share experiences and gain insights from fellow cohort members.

This twelfth cohort continues the Fellowship's mission of building bipartisan leadership that advances innovative education solutions, ensuring that students nationwide have the resources and support they need to succeed.

The Hunt Institute has just started the Hunt-Lee Mayors Leadership Fellows program.

The Hunt-Lee Mayors Leadership Fellows program:

• Develops strategies for expanding pre-K access and childcare infrastructure
• Strengthens partnerships between school districts and city government
• Creates pathways connecting high schools to community colleges and employers
• Builds cross-sector coalitions to address teacher recruitment and retention
• Implements data-driven approaches to improving student outcomes in urban education systems

By investing in education leaders and aspiring local and state policymakers, we are creating a pipeline of informed education leaders, beginning at the municipal and county levels and on to state and national elected office.

Guess who's in the inaugural cohort of 15? Mayor Monroe Nichols of Tulsa.

And the Hunt Institute holds legislators' retreats, too, including five in Oklahoma, beginning in 2022. Here is the policy agenda the Hunt Institute was pushing at their most recent retreat last December.

While these programs present themselves as neutral opportunities to study data and discuss strategies, the sponsors have a set of policy goals that they're promoting, and all of them involve bigger, more intrusive government. (A look at the Hunt Institute's blog posts and policy papers makes this evident.)

They use the flattery of a fellowship to lure in officials, create an us-vs.-them (politicians vs. public) mentality that builds on a politician's need to be liked to create a bond between him and his peers of both parties in other states. When he "brings back" the big-government policies he learned during the fellowship and tries to impose them on his state, he can persist despite opposition because he cares more about impressing his peer officials in other states than persuading his own voters. He can imagine himself as courageously bucking public opinion and following the experts and the data, but he's just a conformist who has found a more prestigious group to conform to.

This was the same sort of dynamic at work in the Broad Institute, whose alumni filled the ranks of Tulsa Public Schools upper administration under Deborah Gist. Once you see the pattern, you see it everywhere: National Governors Association, U. S. Conference of Mayors, National Conference of State Legislatures, all the way down to Leadership Oklahoma and Leadership Tulsa. They're all programs of enculturation and assimilation.

Gentner Drummond has been programmed to believe that it's more important to tax Oklahomans so that our children can be in daycare from birth than to let Oklahomans keep more of our own money so that more families have the option of Mom staying home with the kids. He evidently believes daycares can do a better job of raising children than parents or extended family.

MORE: Drummond tells government employees not to expect zero income tax anytime soon -- anytime ever:

But on zero income tax, is there a path for us to, in the future, ultimately have zero income tax? Sure. After we are top of the nation in education, health care, mental health, that we've created workforce, that we've partnered with our tribes, that we've built our economy, that people are coming into Oklahoma because we're, one, the best people in the nation, two, the most beautiful land, three, the best educators, and a place that people should be attracted. Then we have a path to reducing taxes. But between now and then, we are going to feed the hungry, educate our children, and take care of our elders, because that's the way we are raised.

So, basically, never.