Education groups step up advocacy of coalition plan

Nearly all of Oklahoma’s major public education advocacy groups, along with the state’s two largest school districts, have publicly backed a series of tax hikes being promoted by a statewide coalition of business and civic leaders, largely because of its inclusion of a $5,000 teacher pay raise.

Some of those education groups promoted the budget

proposal at a Wednesday gathering of nearly 300 school district leaders from across the state, at times referring to it as the state’sonly shotat a teacher salary increase.

“Bottom line is we are in a crisis situation in education and if we don’t address it very quickly ... it is going to be devastating to us,” said Rick Garrison, superintendent of Elk City Public Schools and president of the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators, which hosted Wednesday’s legislative conference in Oklahoma City.

Through proposed tax increases on gross production, motor fuel and cigarettes, while also eliminating certain individual income tax deductions and loopholes, the coalition under the banner of Step Up Oklahoma believes the state could fund a $5,000 teacher pay raise, along with shoring up a large budget hole.

While education officials spoke in support of the Step Up Oklahoma plan and encouraged school leaders to lobby the

state Legislature, a few lawmakers who oversee legislative committees on education and school finance expressed some frustration with the proposal.

“These are the same people who defeated your (teacher) pay raise a couple years ago,” said Sen. Jason Smalley, R-Stroud, speaking on a panel at the conference.

Smalley said the proposal from Step Up Oklahoma is nearly identical to a proposal pushed by the state Senate last year, which he said some members of Step Up Oklahoma lobbied against at the time.

“That’s really rude in my book,” Smalley said in reference to the role reversal.

Smalley, who is the chair of the state Senate appropriations subcommittee on education, said he supported a statewide teacher pay raise but wasn’t sure how likely it would be this year given the considerable number of lawmakers seeking reelection.

Rep. Dennis Casey,who is vice chair of the state House appropriations and budget committee, also criticized members of Step Up Oklahoma who he said stood in the way of proposed budget fixes last year.

“They are the ones that fought to kill the

A-plus plan,” said Casey, referring to a series of proposed tax hikes on tobacco, motor fuel, low-point beer and the production of oil and gas. “The very people supporting it (now) were the very people fighting to defeat it then.”

But Casey, R-Morrison, also said he was optimistic the budget would be addressed early in the legislative session, which begins next month.

“It seems like the sense of urgency (to settle the budget) is not usually there until the end (of the session). But I do believe, and maybe I’m being hopeful, we will see a difference this year,” Casey said. “I don’t know what happens, but I do think it happens quick.”

Smalley and Casey were joined by Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa, chair of the Senate education

committee, on Wednesday’s panel.

All expressed general support for some of the ideas included in the Step Up Oklahoma plan. But each said it would require flexibility as the proposals begin to get vetted by the state Legislature in the coming weeks.

A group called the Oklahoma Education Coalition, which is made up of several public school advocacy organizations, including the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, the Oklahoma Education Association, and the Oklahoma City and Tulsa school districts, issued a statement of support for the budget proposal on Wednesday.

“The Step Up plan includes the most balanced and sustainable revenue package that has been presented to

address our state’s persistent budget crisis,” said Pam Deering, OEC chair.

Many of the organizations that make up the OEC have been some of the fiercest advocates for teacher pay and education funding over the last several years.

As the Legislature begins to take up the budget proposal, these education groups could quickly mobilize at the Capitol, especially with a unified focus on a specific pay raise amount and proposed tax increases to fund it.

Jim Dunlap with the lobbying firm Majority Plus told educators on Wednesday he believed the advocacy of education groups and school leaders could play a key role in advancing the budget plan.

“Last week, I thought it had a 40 percent (chance of passing),” Dunlap said. “Right now, I think it’s 50-50.”

Rep. Casey told educators at Wednesday’s conference they should expect to see some reform efforts attached to a teacher pay raise.

“Don’t kid yourself, any time legislators give you money it’s going to come with reforms,” such as merit pay for teachers, Casey said. “My advice to you is ... get in front of some of those things that you think are going to happen. Make it your idea and own it.”

Beyond funding, the lawmakers said there

would be a variety of other education-related bills discussed this year, including school consolidation and decreasing school administration funding as a share of district budgets.

However, each agreed that those issues were unlikely to gain much traction, even though Gov. Mary Fallin recently issued an executive order that called for the consolidation of services in school districts that spend less than 60 percent of their budget on student instruction.

“I don’t see us talking much about administrative costs this year,” Smalley said. “I don’t see us taking the governor’s executive order and applying too much thought into it.”