S.O.S.-Save our Schools

[Double A]

Rabon: House Must Act Now on Supplemental Funding for Education

State Sen. Jeff Rabon on Monday urged the Oklahoma House of Representatives to act quickly in approving a bill to provide supplemental funding for education.

Rabon said the Legislature must provide approximately $40 million in order to cover the costs of teacher pay raises approved last year and the increasing cost of health insurance benefit rates, or schools could be forced to cut personnel. The Oklahoma Constitution requires that all spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives before advancing to the Senate.

"The House needs to send a bill to provide supplemental funding and they need to do it quickly," said Rabon, D-Hugo. "If the House doesn't send us a supplemental this week, our schools will be faced with a funding crisis that could result in personnel cuts at schools throughout the state."

Rabon noted that state Department of Education officials have stated that supplemental funding must be approved by March 15, in order to avoid funding cuts.

"Schools have already been forced to consider the possibility of terminating certified staff and support personnel and some already have," Rabon said. "If this doesn't send a message about the urgency of the issue, then nothing will. People's jobs are at stake here, and the Legislature has a moral responsibility to provide the funding and resources we've promised to Oklahoma schools."

Rabon said the Legislature has the funding available to cover the increased costs, but that action must be taken this week or more schools will be forced to consider layoffs.

"We've got the funding to do it – it's just a matter of whether the House will get down to business and send us a bill in time to get funding to our schools," Rabon said.

Rabon added that lagging lottery revenues have contributed to a shortfall in education funding that the Legislature must address. Recently, school districts throughout the state were notified by the State Department of Education that their budgets would be reduced if supplemental funding was not approved by the Legislature by the end of this week.

"We've made a promise to our schools and teachers and we have to follow through with what we've guaranteed them," Rabon said. "But if the House doesn't send us a vehicle through which we can provide our schools with the funding they need, we're going to be faced with a crisis."

For more information contact:
Senator Rabon's Office - (405) 521-5614

[guido911]

Let's not save our schools by throwing more money at it. I am sick of our public school system as it is. We need real reform--starting with vouchers or tax credits for private schools.

[TheArtist]

quote:Originally posted by guido911

Let's not save our schools by throwing more money at it. I am sick of our public school system as it is. We need real reform--starting with vouchers or tax credits for private schools.

So are you saying that you think, for profit, private schools will do more for the students with the same amount of money per student that public schools can?

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by guido911

Let's not save our schools by throwing more money at it. I am sick of our public school system as it is. We need real reform--starting with vouchers or tax credits for private schools.

No to vouchers, yes to Charter schools to provide choice, yes to Public Education.

Wanna cut out bloated executive compensation packages, golden parachutes, and the fat on the administrative level? I'm all for that, however, I will always support competitive compensation for rank and file teachers and support personnel who directly educate and interact with children to attract the absolute best employees available.

[Cubs]

WOW, that lottery is really working well .... NOT!!!  

Lotteries grow government, not education.

[cannon_fodder]

Agree with all.

It doesnt take much to realize a government getting money from a new source will simply redirect money from an old source... ie, the actual funding level will stay pretty much the same.  Grow government grow!

I support lotteries.  Basically because if someone is going to profit from gambling it may as well be the government.  Maybe save me a few tax dollars.  But anyone that thinks this is a solution to any problem is misguided... its just a possible supplement.  The eggs from that chicken should be spent AFTER they are hatched and maybe even fattened up a bit.  Wouldnt it be great to start a state endowment for schools with the lottery money.

Anyway, per education in general; more money is not the answer.  WE spend more per student now than ever before and I dont think we are getting that much more for it.

Teachers make plenty of money for the hours they put in.  Making somewhere between $36 and $50 dollars per hour worked.  That's a lot of money.   My wife holds an education degree - its not a get rich quick scheme but for holidays, weekends, afternoons and summers off it pays pretty well.  The constant cry for higher teacher pay will NEVER stop, no matter what they make.  They need to be paid enough to fill the spots and provide them with a living wage, which we are doing.  

The overhead in Oklahoma is obnoxious.  Every sparrow fart town has its own school distract with a super intendant, administration and associated buildings, and full gambit of schools.  Most rural states with good education learned long ago that you have to sacrifice small town pride for the sake of education.  So what if it becomes the Manford-Westport high school - if your kids get more education for less money.  Rural Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa learned this long ago and have log been regarded as education leaders.  

If I remember correctly, Tulsa Public does little better.  The ratio's I saw for administrative expenses were insane.  The building at 31st and Marion is as large as the office space utilized to run OneOK or Quiktrip.    Its more administrative space than U of Tulsa has. What in the hell goes on in there?  There are always 20 or 30 white vehicles parked in the lot and probably 500 employees.  That's insane.  But even with all that they cant seem to educate a child well enough to get up to par.

I went to private schools for  3/4 of my education and believe they do more with less.  However, we have to be careful what we wish for.   Pakistan has plenty of private schools that do nothing but teach children to hate certain groups of people and to memorize a book.  There would still be a certain amount of government entanglement to accredit a school or we would risk funding education that does nothing for our society.

Also, the funding/voucher or whatever system that is setup could easily be arranged to benefit both the new schools and the old.  A private school can educate a child for $6000 per student while the public school takes $10,000. So grant  voucher for $5000 and leave the other 5 at the public school.  There would be some cost associated for the private school choice and the public school would gain $5K in funding.

Everyone wins!  I would look forward to the market finding ways to distinguish the best schools by compilation ACT or other methods.

Clearly the current system is just going through the motions.  I dont have THE answer... but something needs to change. But hey, at least we are graduate better than 50% - which beats out Texas (according to studies of the large cities there and actual drop out rates).

[guido911]

"So are you saying that you think, for profit, private schools will do more for the students with the same amount of money per student that public schools can?"

I am saying private schools do better than public schools. Period. It is not the government's job to teach our children.

[Conan71]

Here's an interesting article on the lottery from three years ago:

http://www.ocpathink.org/ViewPerspectiveEdition.asp?ID=26

Personally, I'm ambivalent on state lotteries.  If the majority of the people want a "stupid tax" so be it.  I'm not much of a gambler, so I'm not heavily taxed by it.  I've probably bought $10-$15 in powerball tickets since we've had it and my mother gets everyone in the family one of the $1 scratch cards as a stocking stuffer at Xmas.  

The lottery was over-sold and has under-delivered.  It's happened in other states as well, but somehow the legislature had a pie-in-the-sky idea of how much revenue it would generate and spent the money before they had any proof of how much it would generate.  It created another bureaucracy with more salaries, oversight, and a huge ad budget.

The way the legislators went about committing money to raises before they even had a track record of it's procedes is like getting a mortgage on a $1mm home while you are making $50k per year and you are assuming you will miraculously make $200K next year so you can service the debt on your new home.

Un-related governments, but, has anyone else seen the irony in the Catoosa schools laying off 28 workers while the Casino a few miles away is doing a multi-million $$ make-over?

[Double A]

I thought Mare Taylor was going to make education a priority in her administration. She should have been on the bus with the mentoring program kids going to OKC to personally lobbying state legislators to act to avoid this education crisis. LEAD DAMMIT!

That goes for the City Council, and for all the surrounding Mayors and Councils. When this starts making national headlines economic development in Oklahoma will be in big time trouble.

[Conan71]

Oh, and she was going to heal the rift between the city and police department.  I bet Bill Wells remembers that.

[Ibanez]

I will feel sorry for the schools when I stop seeing administrators sitting in $2000 office chairs working on a PC with a 21 inch flat panel monitor.

Want to save some money? Got to Staples and get some $200 chairs and some 17 inch LCD's.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Want to see some real wasted money? Just wander through the administration building sometime.

It will sicken you.

[cannon_fodder]

Wait!  Maybe, just maybe... they can get regular old projection monitors.  Like the ones I use at home, at work, and at my business.  I know these sacrifices are tough, but think of the children.

[shadows]

Cut funding?  Who does the average person think spends up to possibly 2 million dollars total gifts to be elected mayor.  That is the modern way to recycle the money by adding funding from the taxpayer coffers not reducing it.  

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Wait!  Maybe, just maybe... they can get regular old projection monitors.  Like the ones I use at home, at work, and at my business.  I know these sacrifices are tough, but think of the children.

Tee LCD's are dropping so much in price that CRT's are getting scarce. Most bundles come with LCD's and CRT's are pretty much special order. Also, the equivalent of a 21" CRT is actually only 19-20" in an LCD.

Not justifying it, just saying the cost difference isn't that large anymore. I'm the biggest geek here and my monitor is clunky enough to be mistaken for a mid-60's chrysler.

[TheArtist]

It sounds like a lot of people are saying its the bad descisions many of our elected officials are making that is much of the problem.  If thats the case wouldnt that mean thats the fault of the people electing them?  Arent those the very people you would then be trusting to make the right choices with vouchers?

Take those small town school districts.  With vouchers wouldn't a private company have to build a school,buy computers, supplies, maintenance staff, pay teachers, administrators etc.  Even if it were for less, with less, it would seem that there would be even more schools and everything else to be paying for, not less.

Another thing is that many parents dont even know where their kids are most of the time, dont have a clue as to what their kids do at school, in many instances they have to take a bus to work themselves. What if they don't work?  How would vouchers work in these instances?  How can you make these parents care?  How would they get their kids to a different school if they dont have transportation themselves?  Will this further the rich poor divide? (reminds me of how suburban people and churches will decry the crime and bums being downtown. But where are the soup kitchens and help for these people? Downtown.  You hear about someone wanting to build a youth home in a suburb and they scream, not in my back yard.  We will send you some money, but we dont want to actually have to deal with the problem, let others do that, we dont want to get dirty ourselves.  Its not us, its them.)

If there are so many people that are willing to move their children to different and better schools, which is the point of vouchers, are those private and other schools going to be able to handle the growth and number of students?  I mean just how many public school students can schools like Cascia Hall or Monte Cassino take?  How many private schools are there in town?  If say just 50% of the people took their kids to other schools, where will the other schools be? In the same neighborhoods or across town? How many people in TPS would drive their kids to and from the "better" schools in Jenks and BA every day? Do most people have the work hours to drive their kids to another school, or will their kids have to sit around the school till after the parent finishes work?  Or does this mean that there will be ever more little busses all over town picking up kids and taking them to ever more various and sundry schools?

If only a few people use vouchers, things will be pretty much the same. If even half the people use them, then it sounds like a mess. Not to mention the possibility of a further "Balkanization" of our already fragmented society. Will there be even more different schools?  Gay schools for gay kids, different religious schools, ethnic schools, science based schools versus religious schools for those who dont want their kids to be around religious freaks etc. etc.?  Will this help us get along better, solve common problems, or will it lead to further fragmentation and isolation?