Quotes of the Day

“We stopped the movement for income tax repeal, and we’ve seen growing recognition … that there is a structural budget deficit, that we do have a revenue problem, that we need more revenue. And we have seen real, unprecedented openness to new taxes in the state.”

– David Blatt, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, speaking at our annual Budget Summit on the state of the Oklahoma Budget as we begin a new legislative session (Source)

“It’s less disruptive to the family right now, but I’m not sitting at home and tweaking my lessons as much as I would like. I’m not researching internet technology ideas for my teachers as much as I’d like. I’d be able to do those things, if it wasn’t working an additional 10-20 hours a week on top of a full-time teaching job.”

– Bartlesville middle school teacher Brian Davis, who has several part-time jobs, including driving for Uber, in order to make ends meet (Source)

“The Center supports this important coming together of business and civic leaders to endorse a multipronged approach to fixing our budget. For too long, Oklahomans and the nonprofits that improve our communities have been challenged because of the budget woes that resulted in stagnant funding and cuts affecting various charities.”

– Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits President Marnie Taylor, adding her group’s endorsement for the Step Up Oklahoma plan to raise revenue for the state budget (Source)

“As our state continues suffering the effects of an unprecedented teacher shortage, Oklahoma cannot afford to ignore the results of this survey. Pay is no cure-all to staving off this shortage, but without regionally competitive compensation, we are trying to win a home run contest with one arm held behind our back.”

– State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, commenting on a survey that showed that 48 percent of former teachers chose low pay as the most important factor in quitting the profession (Source)

“My oldest son loved being around students, went on church mission trips, was a summer sponsor for church camp and volunteer coach; he is the kind of person we need around kids…At 20 years old, teaching became a non-option for him. How many times does that happen?”

– Corey Holland, Assistant Principal of Cache Public Schools, on one of the most difficult to measure effects of low teacher pay in Oklahoma – deterring potential new teachers from pursuing teaching as a career (Source)

“We should absolutely have a zero-tolerance stance when it comes to those unwilling to have the courage to seek sustaining solutions for public education.”

– BOK Financial CEO and Tulsa Regional Chamber Chairman Steve Bradshaw (Source)

“Every school should be taking these students. These students have a right given by our constitution to be educated.”

– Rep. Lee Denny, on the news that some Oklahoma private schools offering tax-credit tuition scholarships turn away students with disabilities. Denny authored the legislation that created the scholarship in 2011 (Source)

“The Co-Neutrals urge Oklahoma’s leaders to stay the course in funding DHS’s core strategies to achieve substantial and sustained progress on behalf of the state’s most vulnerable children … A material reversal in support is likely to compromise the still tenuous foundation upon which DHS has sought to build this reform and undermine the years of public investment.”

– From a press release providing an update on the Pinnacle Plan, a court-ordered plan to correct deficiencies in the state’s child welfare system (Source)

“Unfortunately, none of this is a surprise.”

– Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh, commenting on the latest prison statistics, which show Oklahoma still has the second-highest incarceration rate and the highest rate for women (Source)

“Some state employees have not had a pay raise in 11 years. I imagine the business leaders who developed this plan would never let that happen in their own businesses. We understand the need to raise teachers’ salaries and it should be a top priority. Equally important is the need to support core services by raising state employee pay.”

– Oklahoma Public Employees Association Executive Director Sterling Zearley, reacting to a budget plan put forth by a group of Oklahoma business leaders on Thursday (Source)