Quotes of the Day

“Maybe instead of the next Legislative session being held at the Capitol, it should be held at various public schools. This goes for all statewide elected officials. Perhaps lawmakers will act quicker if they sit in a room with 32 colleagues in 75-degree heat and no fan. Bring a coat for winter because boilers in those old schoolhouses are testy. Instead of an office, they have to push a cart with their supplies from room to room, as teachers did in Oklahoma City. Or have them split time at one school then go to another the second part of day. No travel reimbursement is allowed. Just like teachers, officials must give wish lists to constituents for supplies like pencils, paper and hand sanitizer. When things really get tight and janitorial service is cut, they should be ready to mop at the end of the day.”

-Tulsa World columnist Ginnie Graham, writing about Oklahoma legislators who claim to support education while make the largest cuts to school funding in the nation (Source: http://bit.ly/11WC6dX)

“Public schools serve all students, no matter where they came from or what their background is. Statewide, there are more and more students and more and more needs, and yet Oklahoma continues to fall behind when it comes to the funding of public education.”

Fred Rhodes, Putnam City Schools Superintendent

“Why don’t they just follow the constitution? All this whole issue is about is: follow the constitution of the state of Oklahoma.”

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Noma Gurich, to the state’s solicitor general as he sought to defend the way legislators passed an income tax reduction measure that has been challenged as unconstitutional

“The problem with accountability in public education in America is we measure what’s easy then make it important. We have to reverse this and measure what’s important, not what’s easy.”

– Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Rob Neu, discussing OKCPS’s decision to build a 150-person committee and draft a school improvement plan for the district (Source: bit.ly/ZXsrTU)

“A lot of times, the local school district simply doesn’t want to see them return. But they are entitled to return and we will work with them to see that gets done.”

– Keith Wilson, executive director of the state Office of Juvenile Affairs, on why he believes the Central Oklahoma Juvenile Center should cut ties with the local school districts currently responsible for educating detained youth and create its own charter school. (Source: bit.ly/1svbXgg)

“An officer from Crabtree said, ‘The inmates run this place now.’ He was on a floor with 350 offenders. ‘If they decide they want to take the place over, they can. It’s up to them. There’s too many of them and not enough of us.’ That’s what he thinks.”

– Sean Wallace, director of Oklahoma Corrections Professionals, discussing rumored coordinated riots in prisons statewide to protest poor conditions. Oklahoma has the worst offender-to-officer ratio in the country. (Source: bit.ly/1w8nKA3)

“They can go across the border in any direction and receive a lot more compensation, and we see a lot of people doing that.”

-Sandi Calvin, executive director of elementary education at Union Public Schools, who said Oklahoma school districts are struggling to find enough teachers who will work for “extremely low” pay (Source: http://bit.ly/ZfT0lU).

“Imagine being locked in your bathroom for a decade… It’s that kind of existence, but surrounded by violence, indifference and mental illness in the people around you… I had to get over that shock, the disbelief that I’m not supposed to be here… Because nobody wants to hear that and the truth is, that’s where you live now, that’s your home.”

-Curtis McCarty, who spent nearly 20 years on death row in Oklahoma before he was cleared by DNA testing (Source: bit.ly/1vJdEpp).

“The first thing I thought was ‘Yay.’ The second thought I had was ‘We have so much to do!’”

– Mary Bishop, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Oklahoma, who married her long-time partner yesterday after judges ended a stay on the ruling (Source: http://bit.ly/1EoT5Vn)

“They have coverage until they’re 18, and then it’s like, when they turn 18, no more coverage. And that’s the way our state (is), and we need to do something to change this. It’s not really fair. I don’t know what the answer is.”

– Michelle Casson, a Del City grandmother raising her three grandchildren. Ms. Casson is uninsured and sought dental care at a free clinic event in Oklahoma City in August (Source: bit.ly/Z7jINI).