Has common education been a budget priority?
One of the more contentious skirmishes in the battle over SQ 744 concerns the question of whether, in the absence of a constitutional amendment basing common education funding on a constitutionally-entrenched formula, Oklahoma’s elected officials have neglected K-12 funding.
Supporters of SQ 744 argue that at least in recent years, school funding has not been a top priority of the state’s elected officials. In kicking off the campaign for SQ 744 in 2008, OEA President Becky Felts stated, “If we want better workers, stronger employees, a well-educated workforce, we have to make public education a priority.” On its website, the Yes on 744 campaign refers to the need to “re-prioritize public education.” Recently, Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Heather Sparks wrote:
The problem is not that the state doesn’t have the money… The problem is that even in booming economic times, legislators never saw fit to make children’s education a priority. That’s why we need to remove career politicians and bureaucrats from the process of deciding where our children’s schools rank on the list of investment opportunities.
Common education is the single largest recipient of state dollars this fiscal year — about $2.38 billion — and accounts for more than one-third of the state budget… There’s more: During Gov. Brad Henry‘s administration, the state agreed to pay for teachers’ health insurance, teachers received several thousand dollars in pay increases and early childhood programs continued to expand. And when budget-cutting time hit once again earlier this year, lawmakers spared education more than it did other sectors of government. The cuts were still painful, but not as bad they might have been. Does that sound like misplaced priorities? Read the rest of this entry »
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