The Irony of The News Today (RE: The State of Education in OK)

[TMS]

How ironic that the headlines of the Tulsa World today, "Oklahoma still leads nation in state funding cuts to education since recession" and "Creek Nation's Margaritaville gets federal OK to build on Arkansas River" are top stories in the same day's news. Whatever happened to all the funds that were supposed to go to state education from the casinos and lottery??

[heironymouspasparagus]

How ironic that the headlines of the Tulsa World today, "Oklahoma still leads nation in state funding cuts to education since recession" and "Creek Nation's Margaritaville gets federal OK to build on Arkansas River" are top stories in the same day's news. Whatever happened to all the funds that were supposed to go to state education from the casinos and lottery??

I don't care if you are only 5 years old...if you live in Oklahoma, you can't possibly be so naive as to believe anything they tell you about anything.....

Like "Right To Work" was going to bring immediate (or almost - within months) 20% increases in pay for everyone in the state!!  Guys I worked with at the time actually believed that nonsense.  Couple years after, I asked 'what happened to all the raises'  ??   Made a bunch of those fools mad....

[patric]

Like "Right To Work" was going to bring immediate (or almost - within months) 20% increases in pay for everyone in the state!!

I always heard it was to prevent unions from charging dues to non-members who worked in predominantly union shops; I never heard anything about promises of raises.

[TheArtist]

How ironic that the headlines of the Tulsa World today, "Oklahoma still leads nation in state funding cuts to education since recession" and "Creek Nation's Margaritaville gets federal OK to build on Arkansas River" are top stories in the same day's news. Whatever happened to all the funds that were supposed to go to state education from the casinos and lottery??

They put the casino and lottery funds in there, but they took out even more from the other funding sources. 

Here let me explain it to ya like this...

+1 -3 = -2

[Red Arrow]

They put the casino and lottery funds in there, but they took out even more from the other funding sources. 

Here let me explain it to ya like this...

+1 -3 = -2

Oklahoma has been doing that forever.  Promise to dedicate new funds for "x" and then take away even more funds that were already going to "x".

[heironymouspasparagus]

I always heard it was to prevent unions from charging dues to non-members who worked in predominantly union shops; I never heard anything about promises of raises.

They were pushing that same "drug" with the idea that a massive influx of new companies who hate unions would FLOOD into the state...


State Chamber lying about how wages will go up - big surprise there.... page 2.

http://www.okstatechamber.com/sites/www.okstatechamber.com/files/WhitePaper_RightToWork.pdf

[dbacksfan 2.0]

They put the casino and lottery funds in there, but they took out even more from the other funding sources. 

Here let me explain it to ya like this...

+1 -3 = -2

Now, can you explain that "new math" to me?

[Red Arrow]

+1 -3 = -2
Now, can you explain that "new math" to me?

That shows when you take more away than you started with that you wind up with less than nothing.  That's actually old math.

[TheArtist]

Now, can you explain that "new math" to me?

No lol.  And not even going to try.

[sauerkraut]

We all should know from history  that throwing more money at the schools does not work- it's been done all over the country with grim results, throwing money at a problem does not fix the problem -- in fact it useualy makes it worse. They need to cut administration, Tulsa schools are very top heavy. Tulsa Schools need to  spend the money they get in a better -more wise- way.

[Conan71]

We all should know from history  that throwing more money at the schools does not work- it's been done all over the country with grim results, throwing money at a problem does not fix the problem -- in fact it useualy makes it worse. They need to cut administration, Tulsa schools are very top heavy. Tulsa Schools need to  spend the money they get in a better -more wise- way.

Based on your posts, you must have come from one of the richest school districts in the entire world.

[sgrizzle]

How ironic that the headlines of the Tulsa World today, "Oklahoma still leads nation in state funding cuts to education since recession" and "Creek Nation's Margaritaville gets federal OK to build on Arkansas River" are top stories in the same day's news. Whatever happened to all the funds that were supposed to go to state education from the casinos and lottery??

1. I'm not sure you know what the meaning of irony is.

2. the funds from the lottery (not casinos) are going to education, but mostly colleges.

[RecycleMichael]

2. the funds from the lottery (not casinos) are going to education, but mostly colleges.

Exactly.

We have built and operate universities in small towns with influential politicians rather than make the kids go to the big cities to be educated. Wilburton has a population of 2,843 people but has a full faculty and provost for Eastern Oklahoma State College. State appropriations make up 71% of their budget. At the university of Oklahoma in Norman, state appropriations are about 16% of their budget.

Tishomingo has 3,034 residents and is the home of Murray State College. Tonkawa has 3,216 residents and is the home of Northern Oklahoma College, and best of all, Goodwell Oklahoma has 1,293 residents but is the home of Panhandle State University. At Panhandle State, the Associate Professors make an average of $71,465 per year. They also compete in ten NCAA sports and have a school sponsored rodeo team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_Oklahoma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_and_cities_in_Oklahoma_by_population

http://watchdog.org/35514/ok-eastern-oklahoma-state-college-budget-sees-slight-decline/

http://www.opsuaggies.com/

[heironymouspasparagus]

1. I'm not sure you know what the meaning of irony is.

2. the funds from the lottery (not casinos) are going to education, but mostly colleges.

And for every dollar that came from lottery to schools, about $1.20 was removed from previous funding sources to go to the other state slush funds....

[rebound]

Exactly.

We have built and operate universities in small towns with influential politicians rather than make the kids go to the big cities to be educated. Wilburton has a population of 2,843 people but has a full faculty and provost for Eastern Oklahoma State College. State appropriations make up 71% of their budget. At the university of Oklahoma in Norman, state appropriations are about 16% of their budget.

Tishomingo has 3,034 residents and is the home of Murray State College. Tonkawa has 3,216 residents and is the home of Northern Oklahoma College, and best of all, Goodwell Oklahoma has 1,293 residents but is the home of Panhandle State University. At Panhandle State, the Associate Professors make an average of $71,465 per year. They also compete in ten NCAA sports and have a school sponsored rodeo team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_Oklahoma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_and_cities_in_Oklahoma_by_population

http://watchdog.org/35514/ok-eastern-oklahoma-state-college-budget-sees-slight-decline/

http://www.opsuaggies.com/

Don't know if this is thread drift, but the implication in the above is that OK should shut down these smaller colleges and force students into the bigger universities.   No doubt there is some level of over-saturation in these smaller colleges, (Side bar.  Just like our state parks.  My goodness there are way too many little-bitty state parks...) But take Panhandle State as an example.  If it doesn't exist, would those students travel to OU or OSU?  I'd suggest the majority would not.  OPSU fills a need out there for those rural students. 

Now, maybe OK could consolidate some of the NW small colleges at NEO in Weatherford?  (or similar) I'm sure studies have been done, but it would be interesting to know how far  - based on percentages, what is practical financially, etc -  students would be willing to travel to go to college.    I grew up in a small town South of Lawton, and the majority of people who went to college from the smaller rural towns around there went to Cameron in Lawton, not OSU or OU.   So while I personally did make the decision to travel (OSU), and agree that some rationalization may be in order, a wholesale elimination of the small local colleges would be doing a disservice to the large rural OK population.