Education groups step up pressure for funding plan
Public school advocates are stepping up their pressure on Oklahoma lawmakers to increase education funding and teacher pay, including a call on the Legislature to meet an April 1 deadline.
“What we are asking today is that they simply follow the law they passed in 2003,” said Amber England, executive director of Stand for Children Oklahoma, referring to a law that requires an education budget be in place by April 1.
England was joined by other education advocates at the state Capitol on Monday to kick off a lobbying effort centered on that deadline.
Also joining the effort was the Oklahoma Education Association, which launched its own marketing campaign this month called Fight for Funding. Through a series of online commercials that have been running on various streaming services, the state’s next to last ranking in average teacher pay is highlighted with teachers and students giving Oklahoma “an F in funding education.”
A grassroots group of parents and educators have also scheduled an advocacy day at
the Capitol on Tuesday, with a plan to meet with lawmakers and pass out apple pies.
“My hope is that we can get more people there to build relationships with lawmakers,” said Angela Little, one of the organizers behind the Tuesday event and leader of the group Oklahomans for Public Education.
“When people meet face-to-face I think they will be more open. There is not going to be as much of the grandstanding or bullying.”
Public education lobbying has taken the form of large rallies in years past, but those involved this year have said they are looking for more direct approaches to not only motivate lawmakers but also their constituents.
England said part of that plan will include town hall meetings in the home districts of some lawmakers in the coming weeks, another effort to apply political pressure for an increase in public school funding and teacher pay.
House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang, who is chair of the House appropriations and budget committee, did not respond to a request for comment concerning the April 1 deadline.
In 2003, Gov. Brad Henry signed legislation that requires the House and Senate pass an education budget no later than April 1 each year. Specifically: “The Legislature shall present measures that provide full funding for the support of common education to the Governor [...] for the Governor’s consideration at least twenty-five (25) days prior to the date established by subsection E of Section 6-101 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes, but not later than April 1, in order for the boards of education of the school districts of this state to make decisions on teacher contracts.”
The plan worked, for a year. The 2004 appropriation to the State Board of Education was sent to the governor on March 10 and Henry signed it 12 days later. That bill was the annual appropriations bill, so it also included more than $4 billion in funding for other agencies.
In subsequent years, however, the April 1 funding deadline has passed without an education budget. School administrators say they need it by April 1 so they can renew teachers’ contracts before school lets out. Lawmakers have said it’s hard to spend money when they don’t know how much they’ll have to cut out of the budget.
State superintendent Joy Hofmeister did not take part in Monday’s call to meet the April 1 deadline, but she said she understood the need for education funding to be outlined earlier than is typical.
“With the teacher shortage and funding instability, it is vitally important that schools have advanced opportunities to plan and make key instruction decisions around supports to kids that must be cut or eliminated, understanding there will be long-term consequences for learning and momentum,” Hofmeister said in a statement. “It is always crucial that schools and districts know as early as possible their budgets for the upcoming year, but it is especially so during times of significant budgetary cuts. With the compounding cuts education has taken, another round will likely mean more reduction in programs and staff.”
The education advocates on Monday said they were prepared to release their own proposed budget by April 1 but did not say if legal action would be attempted if the deadline was not met.
“That would be further on down the road to think of something like that,” Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said when asked about the potential for a lawsuit. “Right now we just need everyone to understand what dire straits our students are in with what is going on with education funding.”
The OEA sued the state in 2007 asking for changes in how the Legislature funds public schools. The lawsuit was unsuccessful and funding has failed to keep pace with student growth ever since.
“It seems like going back to the courts might be the next step because the Legislature has failed to act for a number of years now,” said Elizabeth Smith, a professor of educational policy at the University of Tulsa.
Smith recently wrote a guest column published by the Oklahoma Policy Institute where she said it might be time to seek a funding remedy in the courts. She told
The Oklahoman election results don’t show change taking place at the ballot box.
“I don’t blame (the Legislature) in some part because they keep getting elected,” Smith said. “There would require such great turnover in the Legislature to change the system that it seems like the court system could be a much quicker alternative.”
Efforts to force change in the courts were recently successful in Kansas as the state Supreme Court ruled that the funding system was unconstitutional and lawmakers needed to come up with a new funding system.
“We’ve gone through the same types of rollbacks in corporate taxes and income taxes that Kansas has that put them in such dire straits that their supreme court has decided they are not funding public education appropriately,” Priest said. “Kudos to them and we hope that it doesn’t come to that.”