AJ Griffin served six years in the Oklahoma Senate, including two terms as vice chair for the Republican caucus. Two years ago, Griffin became the CEO of Potts Family Foundation, an Oklahoma City nonprofit focused on improving early childhood conditions in the state. The nonprofit also helps organize the Early Childhood Legislative Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who focus on bills to improve young children’s lives.
Griffin recently discussed her former work in the Legislature and her position at Potts with Oklahoma Gazette.
Oklahoma Gazette: Do you miss the Legislature at all?
AJ Griffin: I enjoy being able to still do policy work and influence policy, but I’m actually really glad that I’m not serving (in the Legislature) right now.
What do you miss most about being in the Legislature?
I miss being able to have control over policies, killing bad stuff and getting good stuff across the finish line. I can still have influence in my current role, but it’s not as easy.
What do you miss the least?
I don’t miss the politics inside that building, all of the nonsense, like who’s the chair of this committee or who is in this leadership position. You spend a lot of time on some stuff that I just didn’t really think mattered that much.
What made you want to work at Potts Family Foundation?
I was one of Oklahoma’s first Smart Start Community coordinators 20 years ago, so the early childhood work comes naturally to me.
Education has been a challenging issue for Oklahoma, but early childhood education has been a bright spot with universal Pre-K. However, where are we now regarding early childhood education in the state?
The advances that we’ve made in early childhood education, most states have caught up with when it comes to access to high-quality early education for 4-year-olds, and some states are now adding 3-year-olds to the public school systems. And while we have a great system for high-quality child care, it’s not funded for low-income families and is just simply unaffordable in a lot of places. The (COVID-19) pandemic really put a strain on those child-care businesses.
What has the post-pandemic world been like for early childhood care in Oklahoma?
During COVID, a lot of additional federal funds got pumped into the system and beefed up access to child care. Most of that additional funding has now gone away, and so we’re losing providers, and when you can’t access child care, it makes it hard to go to work, which makes your economic situation unstable, which makes your family life more difficult. I mean, it’s just all cyclical; everything goes together.
One thing you learn when you are in the Legislature is that it’s all one big system, and every lever that gets pulled impacts the whole thing either positively or negatively. Every tax change impacts the whole system, up and down, all levels of government. You can’t make a single change and not think it’s going to impact families.
Do you think the Legislature understands that?
I have the luxury of no longer having to stand for election, which means I can speak clearly and plainly about how policies will impact families at the end of the day. The challenge with elected officials is they are making decisions beholden to the people that vote. And unfortunately, that’s not many Oklahomans. Because of our closed primary system, it’s just voters in the primary for the most part in many elections. So a lot of the policy work gets lost in the politics.
What are you most proud of?
We have our Family Positive Workplace program, which celebrates employers that recognize their employees’ role as caregivers and support them. It’s a two-prong program. Family Positive has a certification that any Oklahoma employer can survey with us and be certified as a Family Positive employer. We also partner with The Oklahoman and its Oklahoma Top Workplaces award, and any employer with 35 or more employees can vie for Oklahoma’s top family-positive workplace this year. This year, that was Phase Two, which is a technology company here in Oklahoma City.
Are there any bills or policies you are closely tracking this session?
There’s a bill that would enact mandatory vision and hearing screenings for kids when they enter school. It’s really important. It’s estimated that 75 percent of kids who are diagnosed with a learning disability actually had a visual or hearing disorder that could have been corrected at some point. However, most of those things have to be addressed before you turn 7 or you typically have learning loss.
I’ve also been involved in the attempt to eliminate the use of corporal punishment in Oklahoma schools. The research is pretty clear: Hitting children is never beneficial.
This article appears in OKC Ballet Shorts.