State schools Superintendent Janet Barresi proposed a $2,000 raise for teachers last week.
A lot of people - including the Tulsa World - agreed with the goal, but questioned how she wanted to pay for it by squeezing more money out of local districts and not supplying new state appropriations.
I wish the debate had gone in a different direction: Instead of talking about where to find the money, we should have been talking about what taxpayers would get for their $2,000.
First, we should be getting better teachers for the money, about $100 million statewide, according to Barresi's estimate.
We stand a chance of getting better teachers for the money if it were distributed as merit raises instead of across-the-board hikes.
Merit raises reward excellence.
Across-the-board raises reward more of what we were already getting.
People who don't work for the government know that raises based on showing up for work don't happen very often any more. Increased salary should be a means of rewarding top performers and, honestly, discouraging those who should find other professions, thus opening up spots for newcomers.
Of course, the devil in this instance's details are to be found in how merit is defined and identified.
Tulsa Public Schools' performance evaluation system, funded with a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is supposed to resolve all those issues in a complex matrix of evaluations that go beyond grades, test scores and favoritism.
But the TPS system is still a couple of years away from being ready to be used for that sort of thing.
The rest of the state probably wouldn't be ready for another year after that.
That's too bad.
So, if we can't get merit for our money, maybe we should try to buy a few more days of school with it.
Currently, the school year is 180 days long with up to five days allowed for professional meetings, according to the Education Commission of the States.
It's a system devised under the antiquated notion that kids need to be out of the classroom in time to help with the harvest.
The only thing we're harvesting during the summer months now is mental atrophy, and a bumper crop of that.
Teachers - rightly - complain that the state and school boards are constantly trying to cram more and more into those 175 days, especially testing.
So, for our $2,000, how about some more classroom time for the kids?
The state minimum salary for a 20-year teacher with a bachelor's degree is $40,200, and $2,000 would be roughly a 5 percent hike at that level.
A 5 percent lengthening of the school year would get us nine extra days, but let's be generous and take five. That would be an extra week of education for the kids, something tangible for the money.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the result were the kids learned 5 percent more.
That's the kind of thing a teacher could point to when making a case for a merit raise.
Our 'kid from Westville'
It's hard not to love Markwayne Mullin.
Disagree with the freshman Republican congressman all you want on policy - and I do on many things - but when you talk to him, it's difficult not to genuinely admire his love of God, country and family.
He's got to be the least pretentious congressman ever - a self-proclaimed "kid from Westville" who doesn't like to wear suits and prefers the crowds in his dairy barn to those of the U.S. Capitol.
Is he enjoying himself in Congress, people ask.
Heck, no, he says.
"The minute I start having fun, I'm done," he said. "There's too many people up there having fun."
If you harbor any ill-will toward Mullin, watch the video of his Aug. 23 town hall meeting in Henryetta, where he tells the story of his family's decision to adopt twin girls. You can see it at
tulsaworld.com/mullinvideo The adoption story starts about 12 1/2 minutes into the video and lasts five minutes.
The girls - distant relatives of his wife - were being raised separately by elderly relatives, but Mullin's wife set her heart on bringing them into their household.
Twice she brought up the issue with him, and twice, he said he talked her down, but the second time she played the "trump card."
She asked him to pray about it.
"How do you pray about that?" Mullin asked the people in Henryetta. "Hey, Lord, would you please, please make her heart as selfish as mine?"
In the end, he asked God to change his heart instead.
And on Aug. 21, a judge made the change official.
First published on:
tulsaworld.com/waynesworld
Tweets of the week
"2010: We need to fire lazy, overpaid public school teachers. 2013: They need a raise. What 4-year event could possibly cause such a change?"
- Alfalfa Bill (@okcapitoldome)
"It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."
- Mark Twain (@TheMarkTwain)
Wayne Greene 918-581-0808
wayne.greene@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: What will taxpayers get for their $2,000?
Column - Greene
Rep. Jim Bridenstine's decision to get involved in the Tulsa mayor's race - taping a radio spot that slams Kathy Taylor and paying for it from the Friends of Bridenstine fund - was bold.
It took Democrats a while to get around to arguing about the meat of the issue before the current special session of the Legislature.
