Unless you have been living under a rock for the last two weeks, you know by now that Oklahoma Public Schools have been in almost complete shutdown. After ten successive years of cuts to the common education fund, and zero in the way of pay raises for either certified or support staff, Oklahoma teachers, assisted by their School Boards took the almost unprecedented decision to walk out and close the schools.
I will declare an interest in this matter. I am a parent to three teens all still enrolled in public education. One is in her first year of college, and two are still in high school. My wife is a Special Ed. turned math teacher, and I am a Paraprofessional in an Elementary school. So we have a dog, or several, in this hunt. Added to that, as neither my wife or I wish to live in a country filled with stupid people, we would actively support the proper financing of education whether or not we had any direct involvement.
When this action commenced it was a teacher movement, kinda sorta followed by the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA). Their involvement, as the biggest organization of its type in Oklahoma, has been welcome, but it has not been without issue. The local representatives have been awesome and worked tirelessly, somewhat let down by the state leadership who, quite frankly, don’t seem to know what they want or who they should be listening to. I wouldn’t list them in the “bad” column, but were I grading their performance it would definitely attract such commentary as “could do better”, “needs to try harder”.
That this thing ever got off the ground in Oklahoma is a testament to the “good”. The teachers, the support workers, the students themselves and the local communities. Nothing in my fourteen years living here has indicated previously that Oklahoma teachers had this in them.
They are, without a doubt, a magnificent asset to this state and to the students they serve. They are smart, they are educated and they are deeply committed to serving their communities at considerable cost to themselves and their own families. Oklahoma does not deserve them and with the drift to other states, Oklahoma is losing them. The Oklahoma Department of Education issued two thousand emergency certificates this year in order to have a warm body in a large classroom.
Let me be clear … Employing teachers who do not have the traditional qualifications is not necessarily a bad thing if it is done as part of a thought-out strategy to bring diversity to schools. If, however, it is done as a knee-jerk reaction to cover the asses of a deranged state legislature, then the most likely outcome is further damage to a public school system.
When this action commenced, the teacher’s demands were simple, and Oklahoma can easily afford to meet them.
1. $10000 pay raise for teachers over three years.
2. $5000 pay raise for support staff over three years
3. $200 million for common education (this fund has been cut by 28% over the last 10 years)
Very early in the dispute Governor Fallin (R-Useless) signed a package of bills that offered a one-time raise of as little as $5000 for teachers, $1250 for support staff and $150 million for common education. Before her signature was dry, the legislature removed $50 million from the funding package. The total package is for one year only. Nothing for teachers or support staff in years two and three. No on-going commitment to the common education funding. Zero in the package for new teachers to reduce class sizes. The increase in funding for textbooks represents $48 per student. They study six courses and each textbook costs a district around $100.
This is the deal that the OEA proclaimed satisfied 95% of the funding demands that teachers had made …. sigh. Our math teachers are really, really good. Some of our leaders failed to pay attention in class. Since then the legislature has added back around $20 million.
The action is struggling to maintain momentum, and I fully expect most state schools to re-open by Monday. Our district has been supportive thus far, but they have already made that announcement.
So the question remains …. Is this a Win, Lose or Tie?
It’s mixed, is the only considered response I can find.
Oklahoma teachers won a modest pay-raise, the first in ten years and without this action it would not have happened. The support staff have been slapped, hard, in the face … and it hurts. The students have received very little that will improve either their schools or the quality of their education.
Now for the deeply and abidingly UGLY
Let me start with a name that everyone on this site thought was merely flotsam, washed up on the shores of history … Tom Coburn.
Colburn is running a petition to challenge all of the funding increases. He needs around 41000 signatures to refer all the increases to the ballot. Word on the street is that he already has them. If the petition is certified, the funding is all subject to referendum, quite when no one knows. Maybe this November, but the glacial way these things proceed means it could miss November and be headed for November 2020.
If the funding is held up (translation: stopped, in perpituity), no one is sure that even the modest pay raises are safe. Certainly the OEA isn’t sure, neither are the supportive representatives who have commented.
On this point I make one simple plea to my colleagues:
If the courts certify this petition and refer the new funding to the ballot, then we shut the schools down. Immediately and indefinitely. If they make the announcement on a Tuesday at 10.00 am, then we get the buses to the schools by 10.30 am, because the kids are going home. If they sneak this through during the summer break, then the schools do not open in August.
As.Long.As.It.Takes.
Many teachers, local teacher reps and some state reps and senators have been working tirelessly to get this done. I am thankful for their efforts on behalf of all Oklahomans. Two names deserve a very special mention, as they have to fight an obdurate legislature deeply mired in the very worst Tea Party politics. I do not seek here to exclude others, and there are others.Those two are Senator JJ Dossett and Rep. Scott Inman. There are others, but these two have gone above and beyond. Rep. Eric Proctor has stood alongside fighting too. He brought his kids to the QuikTrip in Owasso where teachers were assembled outside the high school, “to meet some super-heros”. He is not wrong about that. Unfortunately, the legislature is led by Bellatrix LeStrange.
While meeting with local reps is ongoing, and has been so throughout, Oklahoma can be a strange place. Some of our elected officials have not entered discussions in good faith.
So for my last super-villain I give you the following. This is a post to the homepage of Dale Derby (R-Confused about Everything), District 74. He posted this just yesterday and may take it down … so I am re-posting it here.
This is what we are up against. This is why we can’t get anything done, or have nice things. This must be stopped:
Link to post: https://www.facebook.com/derbygasman/posts/2145351845491198
Dale Derby - Oklahoma House Representative, District 74
21 hrs ·
This the best summation of what is wrong with the present education I have read in years. I know a lot of educators will say there he goes again but folks we hav a culture problem in AMERICA. It is manifested in the public school system.
Teachers are not bad. The system is broken.
To change what is going on will take time, money, will power and a lot of prayer!
With the utmost respect To All Christian School Teachers
In 1960, only 5% of all births occurred to unmarried women. Strong, God fearing nuclear families produced well behaved, respectful children. The school bus said “Our Community” Public Schools, because they were run by the community. Parents were represented by an elected board who oversaw everything from hiring to curriculum. Parents, teachers and students were overwhelmingly moral, respectful and God fearing. Back talking a teacher was unheard much less the thought of a teacher having sex with a student and a school shooting was not even something Rod Sterling could imagine.
Our Declaration of Independence based our country’s existence on rights given by our Creator and absolute truth being “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” The sole purpose of government was to secure those rights.
In 1962 & 1963, without any Constitutional authority, the Supreme Court ripped God out of education. Now, denying God, government grants rights (hello Karl Marx). Without “natural law”, there is no absolute truth and truth evolves (hello Charles Darwin). This began the downward spiral to where we are today.
With God gone, the sexual revolution exploded. Shortly thereafter, killing unwanted children was declared a “right” by 7 Supreme Court justices who are now regretting their decision as they are burning in hell.
Basic economic law proves that if you want less of something, you tax it. If you want more of something, you subsidize it. Our government, in its infinite wisdom, decided to subsidize unwed mothers promoting more of it and even encouraging them financially to not marry the father. Now, 40% of all births are to unwed mothers. With the destruction of the family, both our prison and the welfare systems are exploding.
Coinciding with the destruction of morality and the family, LBJ began nationalizing education in 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Every five years or so they roll out some new plan to fix education - Goals 2000, School to Work, Race to the Top or Common Core.
Teachers now have an impossible job. Disrespect and an entitlement mentality reigns among youth. Teachers can no longer teach the greatness (though never perfect) of America, are required to teach to the test and Christian teachers must use caution in how much “Truth” they can impart in the classroom.
Parents have no say so on curriculum. Although I received a great education in Edmond, what teachers are required to teach has changed. I didn’t want my children taught that evolution was a fact, there are more than two genders, climate change is the greatest threat to our generation or that every teen should be sexually active. Consequently, not only do I pay my property taxes, but I had to pay an additional $7000 per year per child to receive an education that their mother and I approved. According to my BIble, I am charged with training up my children, not the government. By the way, Christian Heritage Academy is not a school full of rich parents. Most were pure middle class working extra hours and odd jobs to afford tuition.
Teachers who want the best for children are not to blame for this mess, but neither are the parents and neither are the taxpayers.
So what is the fix? More money? We’ve had HB1017, para-mutual horse racing, liquor by the drink, casinos, the lottery and now HB1010. Does anyone really think this is going to fix education?
The problem is the system. My question for all who read this is please name one government department or agency anywhere that is both efficient AND cost effective? Most government agencies are neither. So why do we think the Department of Education will be any different?
I can’t even …. Thanks for the bandwidth