Oklahoma Teachers Purge Statehouse of Their Enemies
“For nearly a decade, Republican officials have been treating ordinary Oklahomans like the colonial subjects of an extractive empire. On Governor Mary Fallin’s watch, fracking companies have turned the Sooner State into the earthquake capital of the world; dictated policy to her attorney general; and strong-armed legislators into giving them a $470 million tax break — in a year when Oklahoma faced a $1.3 billion budget shortfall.”
The state went from having 3 earthquakes a year to greater than 500 earthquakes per year as caused by the amounts of liquid being pumped back into the ground in disposal wells.
The Oklahoma AG happened to be the former EPA Chief Scott Pruitt who took a letter from Devon Energy’s William Whitsitt, put it on his letterhead, and sent it to the EPA.
What angered the Oklahoma teachers? “Between 2008 and 2015, Oklahoma’s slashed its per-student education spending by 23.6 percent.”
August 28, the Oklahoma’s GOP primary season came to an end. Teachers beat the billionaires in a rout. Nineteen Republicans voted against raising taxes to increase teacher pay last spring and only four will be on the ballot this November.
Oklahoma Teachers Just Purged the Statehouse . . . , Daily Intelligenter, August 29, 2018
https://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem?t=1535980102812
Why do Ps always think that the solution to every issue
is more money?
Here is a quote from the above link:
“Five states — Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin — didn’t just cut into their schools’ general funding from 2008 to 2017; they also passed big tax cuts, making it even harder to raise school money.”
School funding is generally a local event. These five states give
their worker bees extra money but they can not spend it on general
education? Brilliant NPR! Nice maps, however.
It is apparent that folks in those district do not wish to spend
more money on the school system. Maybe the taxpayers are broke?
The middle class has been in a serious economic decline for nearly
two decades.
How about some competition for the public schools ? Funding for
charter schools? Voucher for families so they can decide where
their children go for mass education and not by fiat.
Earthquakes, are also demanding more school funding and
are making their impact known.
Let us know where the money should come from and I will Run and
get it.
Why is less and less money for the 90 per cent so important to you Billy? Other than running to get more for yourself that is.
Mr. Billy:
Why does the increased fracking which has been pointed out as causing the earthquakes in Oklahoma need tax breaks to succeed in a competitive market for energy which comes at the expense of funding for schools? If it was so apparent the locals in each district felt their taxes were too high, why did those very same voters vote out a majority (6 of 10) of Representatives in primaries? Oklahoma already had the lowest tax rate on oil and natural gas in the nation.
“State taxes are “of minor significance in determining companies’ decisions on where and when to drill, and they are rarely decisive for the profitability of drilling. A survey of Oklahoma oil and gas companies found tax incentives to be the least important factor affecting drilling decisions.”
Why should the state add charter schools when there is capacity already available in today’s schools to educate? There was no clamoring for charter schools which makes your comment a non sequitur.
States collect taxes to be used for schools. States also equalize funding for schools so poorer districts are not penalized.
Do not waste my time with your nonsense.
https://www.cato.org/blog/public-school-spending-theres-chart
Examine general education funding since 1970 (inflation adjusted)
and the results of test scores !!!
FAILURES FAR AND WIDE.
When you leave things to governmental units, you will have less
of it and it will cost one hell more.
heybilly…Nice trash talk. I thought the drive to cut taxes in Oklahoma was to have bad schools at less cost to the elite in Oklahoma?
@Billy,
Your link is dated September 6, 2012. Six years old. Anything more recent?
@Billy,
Here’s something far more recent about your precious charter schools.
https://ourfuture.org/20180125/largest-charter-school-fail-ever-doesnt-faze-school-choice-fans
@Billy,
More on charter school “success” here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/magazine/michigan-gambled-on-charter-schools-its-children-lost.html
“Why is less and less money for the 90 per cent so important to you Billy? Other than running to get more for yourself that is.”
Cogitate comment, DC.
We have been demoted to the lower class and need all of our
income to pay for daily necessities.
You and your friends can always go and donate at your local
school board. I am sure they will not say no.
DC, now go play in your class warfare sand box.
“heybilly…Nice trash talk. I thought the drive to cut taxes in Oklahoma was to have bad schools at less cost to the elite in Oklahoma?”
DC, are you an Oklahoman? Is this a parochial issue or are you
the head of the Swamp department of education?
“Your link is dated September 6, 2012. Six years old. Anything more recent?”
Sorry, Joel, that is all I have. I doubt much has changed and hoped
over the past five or six years.
Yes, charter schools will fail but unlike public ones they
go out of businesses.
All we are saying, is give them a chance. Repeat for heaven sake.
Is proficiency important??? If not come to my bakery and buy
my stales at full retail price.
30 and 40 years ago no one wanted to be a teacher because private industry paid more. So everyone went in that direction. Now that private industry has laid off millions of people due to efficiencies and sourcing overseas, people look at teachers with their retirements and competitive wages in comparison with envy. You can not trash the schools just because you got yours and now people are scrambling.
Charter schools especially for profit charter schools are a joke. Most do no better than public schools and in the end the students pay the price for an even worse education. There is no guarantee of improved proficiency. They are not forced to take every student. They do not have to reveal their records.
In the public schools you do have a say. In the charter schools all you can do is leave.
@Billy,
Most public schools are fine. Many are excellent. Charter schools have proven no better, on average, than public schools. Charter schools are mostly a way to vacuum up tax money while freezing out the most challenged students.
Proficiency is important, which is why you need to become proficient at learning the current facts and data.
“Why does the increased fracking which has been pointed out as causing the earthquakes in Oklahoma need tax breaks to succeed in a competitive market for energy which comes at the expense of funding for schools?”
Then change the tax laws, Mr Run. It is quite simply. And how about
the billions in tax revenue the O & G industry has given the state? Do not hear much about that from you.
ARE THESE IMPORTANT OR NOT?
“2.
The oil and gas industry continues to have an outsized
influence on overall state economic activity.
Oil and gas firms account for only 3.2% of all business establishments but hire 5% of wage and salary workers, produce 10% of state GDP,
and generate 5% of total earnings statewide.
3) Oil and gas served as the state’s key job engine the
past decade. Between 2002 and 2012, Oklahoma oil and gas firms created 29,000 new wage and salary jobs while all other
private industries combined added only 56,000.
4) Oil and gas drilling is the largest source of private capital
spending in the state.
Capital spending on oil and gas drilling activity totaled an
estimated $11.7 billion in 2012.
This is equivalent to the construction of nearly 67,000 new single-family
homes annually valued at $175,000 each.
5) The oil and gas industry is the largest source of state tax
revenue in the state. Oklahoma oil and gas firms, owners, and
employees paid direct state tax payments of nearly $2.0 billion
in 2012, or 22% of all state taxes. Severance tax payment to the state
the past ten years totaled $8.69 billion after rebates, or $869 million
annually.
Stop being a carpetbagger.
Gee Baker Billy:
Oklahoma 2018 Rankings: 48th in healthcare, 39th in education, etc. 6th in tax burden at 6.7% (US is at 8.8%), job growth 39th and 39th in job participation rate, 41st in employment, 18th in migration out of the state, 42nd and 44th in food security and poverty.
Oklahoma did not expand Medicaid and takes more Federal Dollars than it pays in. Government is 26th for dependency on federal dollars and its residents are 19th for dependency on federal dollars. You guys are really a mecca of growth and the good life. For who though? Could it be for the few in the 1% of household taxpayers. Lowering corporate taxes does not result in job growth which is what you need to increase GDP and revenue. You are 44th in venture capital. Oklahoma is dependent on fossil fuel such as coal and oil. OK should be growing its Aviation, Aerospace, Biotechnology, etc.
As fracking alters the environment, the industry should pay more for creating the environmental havoc and danger.
Stop defending those who can afford it, being a leach, and pay your fair share.
you have a lot to boast about.
DC, only charter schools rape the taxpayers? Only charter
schools scam the property taxpayers?
How naive.
How about the nexus of spending and learning??
“The United States ranks 14th in the world in cognitive skills and educational attainment, while Pacific Asian countries and regions dominate the top rankings, according to a report commissioned by Pearson, the multinational education company. The report cited a “culture of accountability” as the reason South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong were ranked in the top four for their overall education performance.”
ACCOUNTABILITY!!! Is that not what a buyer of services wants??
“According to the global index, the United States moved up three places from its 2012 ranking of 17, and Finland dropped to 5th place. The United Kingdom ranked 6th, meaning its performance was unchanged.”
Nearly 30% of a state budget are skcools !
“Increasing education funding, on its own, was not shown to improve a country’s educational performance.”
The good and the bad PSS.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/where-school-dollars-go-to-waste/384949/
Bad teachers are rarely fired and paid as much as those
whom excel. Now that is a great system to reward and keep
“educators.”
“And how about the billions in tax revenue the O & G industry has given the state?”
Yeah, how about them? Why are public schools starved of revenue when the state enjoys such a windfall? Where are those billions going, do you suppose? Not for public roads and bridges:
https://newsok.com/article/5554442/oklahomas-rural-roads-bridges-rank-among-nations-poorest
““And how about the billions in tax revenue the O & G industry has given the state?”
“Yeah, how about them? Why are public schools starved of revenue when the state enjoys such a windfall? Where are those billions going, do you suppose?”
Not sure, Joel; but more than likely back to the taxpayers whom
paid for those public tax collections. Nicely hidden taxes and fees
which show up to the end user. Double dipping; with the consumer
blaming businesses for higher cost, rather then the governmental units.
I do not care how folks of others states manage their governmental units.
I am not a busybody nor a carpetbagger.
BTW, what does bad roads and bridges have to do with this
subject other than to advance all of Oklahoma’s ills.
I will say this, I did contract glaucoma, while working in Oklahoma.