On the episode, the trio spoke with Oklahoma City School Superintendent Rob Neu about falling standards in the district. At one point in the conversation, Humphreys, a former Putnam City school board member, said:

The comments came on a March 8 episode of 'Flashpoint,' a weekly political show on KFOR-4 in which Humphreys, a Republican, and Mike Turpen, a Democrat, discuss local news and politics with host Kent Ogle.

Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys is under fire from a self-described progressive news website after comments he made on a local television broadcast saying the Putnam City schools once had a better gene pool.

"When I went on the school board 30… 25 years ago… a little over… we were, probably the best school district in the state. We just happened to have the best gene pool. But that gene pool keeps moving out. It’s moved to Edmond, it’s now moved to Deer Creek, and you know, they’ll keep running as long as they can buy green fields and gasoline for their car.

“It does not build a community. It does not build a city. We have to fix the problems in education. That’s why we did Maps for Kids and we knew brick and mortar wouldn’t fix these problems but it’s a good first step. We have to work with our educators and not against them, it’s a tough challenge.”

Reached by telephone early Friday afternoon, Humphreys disputed that his comments were racist.

“What I was meaning to say was in the PC district 25 to 30 years ago many families were upwardly mobile and more affluent and many of those families have moved to Edmond and Deer Creek,” he said. “I don’t know what the racial mix was in Putnam City when I was there, but I know if you go to school districts in Edmond and Deer Creek, they are racially diverse.”