NEA gave $3 million for Yes on 744 ballot measure

It's hard to imagine people would vote against bringing Oklahoma up to the same per pupil spending of surrounding states but if opponents harp on increased taxes I suspect many will vote no.

Elusive, maybe that lack of imagination is the biggest problem in our education system. If teachers were so underpaid, there wouldn't be nearly so many certified educators looking for jobs. Teachers (and everybody else) should be paid what it takes to keep enough qualified people needed.

It's now what you spend. It's what you get for what you spend. Trim the waste in administration and redundant staff.

The headline is inaccurate and gives a false impression of corruption and/or wasteful spending, of which neither is true. Guess what "endorsement" the TW will give come election time?
Try this on for size - "BP Offers $20 Billion Band-Aid" or "ACORN Workers Among LA Protesters in Phoenix." You people can be played like a drum - dom-de-dum-dum...

Over 250,000 Oklahomans signed the HOPE initiative petition which is now 744. I believe that people in Oklahoma support public education and will vote yes in November. We will just have to wait and see. "Education cost money but so does ignorance."

What a shocker, the organization that for the last 40+ years is responsible for most of the lobbying for the policies that have ultimately failed in public education throws money in favor of 744. Really? The term what have they done or more importantly what have they accomplished lately comes to mind.

I guess being ranked 46th in education is too high for some of the compassionate conservatives in this state. Let's all vote 'no' so we can be the best at something. Unfortunately, the best in this case is also the worst. If you're going to do something, Republicans, do it your best. You idiots have proven to be pretty successful in being the worst.

It's a pretty simple modus operandi:

Underfund education, like government, so that it has no hopes of being self-sufficient; thus, proving you were right all along that education, like government, is broken.

Starve the beast. Just like Reagan did. Triple the deficit, privatize everything you can get your hands on, break the backs of hard working teachers, deprive our youth of the opportunity to be competitive in college/the working world, etc.

Government, like teacher's unions, isn't the problem. How else could a statistical minority like the Republicans are in this state win power? Ignorance is the problem. And, unfortunately, ignorance for the Republicans is in excess.

Look at all the posts that focus on the negative. There are millions of great coaches and great teachers; it is not all gloom and doom!

As I sit in wonder of the Sun
naked and free
eating this sweet peach
it all makes sense...

The NEA is not part of the solution, it's part of the problem. The NEA does not exist to improve eduction, or to serve our children, but to get better pay and benefits for teachers. If the schools get better, and students benefit, it is only a happy accident. In fact, the NEA, in league with the rest of the public-education establishment, opposes every reform that might improve the schools, and perpetuates the status quo, at ever-increasing cost.

America spends more money per pupil than any country in the world, and yet our students perform near the bottom of students in the industrialized world. So lack of money is not the problem. In effect, the educational establishment says, "Given the best financing in the world, we have failed to educate your children properly, so give us more money. While the rest of you--you taxpayers--are facing layoffs and pay cuts, give us more money."

And, of course, the NEA and its supporters always trot out the old canard--anyone who opposes throwing good money after bad hates kids and wants us to be an uneducated society. The truth is that the NEA couldn't care less about "the kids," and has helped to make us an uneducated society.

Bottom line: lack of money is not the problem. What we're spending the money on--programs to indoctrinate students to disbelieve what their parents tell them, programs to teach them how bad America is and how much better we would be if we adopted outside cultures, like those of Mexico or Islamic countries, programs to promote the statist fad of the day (like Global Warming), and big-time athletic programs--is perhaps the problem. Too many administrators, too much overhead, too much education bureaucracy, maybe those are part of the problem. But lack of money is not the problem.

You can say what you want, 744 will destroy Dhs and eliminate all that troublesome road construction. I am fine with the legislature raising taxes to fund schools,but 744 puts all the budget hostage to education. If it passes and it might, the electorate will appeal the act when they understand it and ultimately education will be hurt and NEA credibility injured.

Homeplate2,

I have a child in government run schools here in Ok. More spending is not the answer to what ails our schools, if it were overall the education quality would be much better than it is. As a nation we spend over 7% of our GDP on education, third highest of the of the OECD member countries yet we rank near the bottom in standardized test scores.

non educators....what do they really know?

In 100% agreement with Rand/Tulsa. I am from Georgia but have a granddaughter who lives in Bentonville,AR and $3 million could have already paid for plenty of children extra funds;but like Rand says, that is not what is needed. What is needed is teachers to take serious what and how they teach. Curiculumm and authority needs to go back the way it was in the 60's and 70's. Focus on teaching and not supporting unions. Unions have become a detrimant to the labor force.