“Every child should have a fully qualified school teacher waiting at the front of the class at the beginning of the school year. It’s a fundamental part of the social contract: the investment we all make to assure an educated, prosperous future. And we’re failing miserably.”

– The Tulsa World’s Editorial Board, on the 1,000 teaching vacancies across the state as the 2015-16 school year kicks off. The shortage persists despite eliminating 600 positions across the state and a record number of emergency certification requests (Source)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carly Putnam joined OK Policy in 2013. As Policy Director, she supervises policy research and strategy. She previously worked as an OK Policy intern, and she was OK Policy's health care policy analyst through July 2020. She graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2013. As a student, she was a participant in the National Education for Women (N.E.W.) Leadership Institute and interned with Planned Parenthood. Carly is a graduate of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Nonprofit Management Certification; the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council’s Partners in Policymaking; The Mine, a social entrepreneurship fellowship in Tulsa; and Leadership Tulsa Class 62. She currently serves on the boards of Restore Hope Ministries and The Arc of Oklahoma. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and doing battle with her hundred year-old house.

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