Education reform and funding was the focus of a first-of-its kind statewide webcast event Tuesday evening.
Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma, “Focu$ on Education” featured an Oklahoma City-based panel discussion that was broadcast live to Tulsa Community College and colleges or technology centers in Ada, Ardmore, Lawton, Norman and Stillwater.
Panelists were selected to bring a variety of perspectives to the conversation. David Blatt with the Oklahoma Policy Institute addressed statewide funding and policy issues, such as a supplemental budget request of $289 million by State Superintendent Janet Barresi and the impending retention of third graders who can’t pass state reading tests.
“No one is looking at $289 million as plausible. There is talk of $75 million to $100 million, but once the tax cuts kick in, education might get less,” he said.
He called the aim of the third-grade retention law “noble” but noted that Florida, on whose law Oklahoma’s new one is based, invested extensively in intensive reading interventions for first- and second-graders first.
“There was supposed to be $6 million in the budget for the Reading Sufficiency Act, but that wasn’t funded,” Blatt said. “The idea that we are going to be able to get all of our kids on grade level without a serious commitment of time and resources — we are not going to be able to succeed.”
Sharon Rodine with the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy noted that the Sooner state ranks in the mid-40s out of the 50 states in everything from per-pupil expenditures and birth rates to teens, to childhood obesity and other health indicators.
“We are talking about poverty — persistent and generational poverty that is too expensive and too deep in Oklahoma,” she said. “Too often we are looking at punitive policies. We need to think bigger, broader, better. Offering options and opportunities is what we need to be looking at.”
Terry Graham, a school board member for Burlington Public Schools in northwest Oklahoma, called on state leaders to consider the practical realities of their decisions, particularly when it comes to state aid to schools.
“It’s tough for a school board whenever the state mandates a cut. It’s even more tough when the state comes along in the middle of the year and they say you have $136,000 less than we said you were going to have.
“In my school that’s probably going to be four teachers,” he said, adding, “but you still have to do the same job you’re doing. We still have to educate our children.”
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The group is the fourth delegation of visiting faculty from the university to visit OSU.
