Oklahoma is in trouble and can't fund it's - Kathy Posted: Apr 5th, 2018 - 10:47 am In Reply to: Oklahoma teacher walk out. - Somehow, I cannot feel sorry for
budget. I do not think public school teachers are getting 45,000 a year. Kansas lost teachers to Arkansas for better pay and Kansas, thanks to another screwy governor who thankfully Trump took off our hands, is in the same financial predicament as Oklahoma with not enough money to fund the budget. Oklahoma was hovering at 49 in the country in terms of pay for teachers and education in general (because of the lack of funding for said education) until Mississippi got THEIR act together and Oklahoma became dead last.
This is a complex issue about state funding and taxes and not getting the money from the lottery system that was supposed to go to Education. It seems that the state has decided the money that was SUPPOSED to help fund education is now going to go to Department of Transportation.
Although your posts appear to be heartfelt and may rouse anger towards striking teachers, I think you're leaving a lot of the meat of the issue out of your post.
The reason some students report tattered OLD books that can't be taken home for homework is because they have fallen apart and can't be replaced as they tear up because they are so old they are out of print and any extra copies have been used up or discarded by distributors.
Maybe the colleges could advance their level of learning if Oklahoma students (who are the main applicants to Oklahoma colleges) came from schools in a state that put more importance on the education of the students and actually funded education.
But when a state gets 80% of its state budget in the form of taxes, not just income tax, from the 4 lowest economic groups in a 7-group system and gives the highest earning group not one but two tax breaks in 2016, that was for the 416,000 and above crowd who started out paying 1% of the budget and was reduced to an uncertain fraction of that, it's no wonder they can't afford to fund the state's education or transportation or anything else. Until the voters in Oklahoma demand it, Oklahoma will not change.
I graduated from high school in 1980 and during that period of time transferred to a Florida school my Senior year (I would not have graduated if I had stayed and would need summer school and was okay with that but had to return to Oklahoma b/c my father was ill and had to help my mother) I didn't have crack a book at NEO A&M my freshman year.
CNN has a news article with twitter posts and pictures of the books.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/us/oklahoma-teachers-textbooks-trnd/index.html
Maybe a college professor makes 45,000 a year (and that would be cheap indeed if true) but I doubt Oklahoma is paying that for public school teachers or Kansans would have gone to Oklahoma and commute. I don't think even football coaches make that and we all know how important football is in Oklahoma.
Copan public school went over to 4-day school weeks b/c they couldn't afford the electricity and gas for a 5-day week.
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- Oklahoma teacher walk out. - Somehow, I cannot feel sorry for (Views: 707, 2018-04-05, 4:37 am)
- Oklahoma is in trouble and can't fund it's - Kathy
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