Teacher pay questions

Regarding “Oklahoma teacher offers comparison to life in Texas” (Tulsa World, Oct. 14): I doubt I was the only one who was shocked to read that Shawn Sheehan and his wife are now taking home 71 percent more income as teachers in Lewisville, Texas, than they did in Norman. Frankly the number was so high I was skeptical of its accuracy. The article prompted more questions than it did answers. For example, why is Sheehan not paying union dues in Lewisville? Is he not part of a union? And if he isn’t a union member in Lewisville, what benefit did the Oklahoma teachers union(s) provide? Another question is why Sheehan’s medical insurance is less than half of what he was paying as a Norman teacher.

The most important question that needs to be asked is, what if anything is the Oklahoma State Department of Education doing to find out how Lewisville can afford to pay its teachers 71 percent more then we can? Oklahoma teachers’ pay has been a controversy for decades; when will our leaders, including the teacher’s unions, analyze other states’ pay and tax structures to determine how they are able to afford to pay teachers so much more than Oklahoma?

Liberals may claim that Lewisville has higher taxes and the support of its citizens to pay teachers more, but the numbers presented by Sheehan paint a different picture. Texas has no state income tax and its total sales tax is comparable to Oklahoma’s.

Gregg Tunison, Edmond