Another Oklahoman here. I graduated from a public school ten years ago and my graduating class had students who attended MIT, Princeton, and so forth. From what I understand, my community has continued to send students from public schools to first-rate colleges. So I don't know if I would say that "the state educational apparatus has completely failed." Perhaps that could be true from some of the non-population-center schools. It sounds a bit heavy handed for OKC, Tulsa, Norman, and Edmond, at least.