A billionaire wages war on poverty in Oklahoma
Inside a sun-splashed classroom, George Kaiser folds his lanky frame into a tiny plastic chair next to a blue mat. For the dozen-plus 3- and 4-year-olds sitting on the mat in various stages of squirming, it’s afternoon story time.
Mr. Kaiser is the billionaire benefactor behind this and other preschools for the poorest children in Tulsa, Okla., and he’s the reason why this classroom looks the way it does – cozy nooks, fairy lights, play kitchens, books everywhere – and has two certified early education teachers. As one of them reads “The Gingerbread Man,” Kaiser’s face has the rapt look of a child waiting for the page to turn.
He’s been here before. He’s brought US lawmakers and presidential candidates into the classroom and plied them with data showing the effect of early education on at-risk kids.
Still, he never seems to tire of the attentive faces, the happy hubbub. One of the kids, a smiley African-American boy in a striped polo shirt, is too antsy to sit for long, so he gets up and runs over to the tall visitor in the gray suit, who stretches out his arms for a hug. The boy leans into Kaiser’s lap, and the two listen to the story of a runaway cookie’s comeuppance.
Cheryl Remache, a local mother, recalls a similarly personal encounter she had with Kaiser. A few years ago, she broke down and sobbed at a preschool board meeting because one of Kaiser’s schools had taken in her two autistic sons. He came over and hugged her. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without him,” says Ms. Remache, her eyes tearing up again.
Her younger son, Jayden, is now in sixth grade and a member of his school’s debating team. Remache says the preschool was the building block that helped him succeed. “This is not a drop-off babysitter. This is education,” she says.
If it seems as if Kaiser is everywhere in this former “oil capital of the world,” helping and hugging people, it’s because he is. The
