YOUR VIEWS
What about waste?
I support teacher pay raises, not a strike. When administration and staff exceed teachers in the classroom, there must be some fat that can and should be trimmed. Billions of tax dollars came in when gasoline was $3.80 per gallon. Why didn’t they give the teachers a raise? Waste, duplication, excessive benefits, yet teachers never get a raise.
Lee McCart, Edmond
Ridiculous comparison
The overwhelming majority of Oklahoma voters know that our teachers need to be paid a decent wage; comparable to the region, at the very minimum. In trying to distract from the importance of that issue, Dave Osborn (Your Views, March 19) compared teachers’ wages to the “average per capita income” of Oklahomans. That is a ridiculous comparison unless the average Oklahoman is actually in the workforce as opposed to being retired, too young to hold an ordinary job, or not employed, and has a college degree. Ignoring the latter is particularly dishonest.
Teachers spend the time and money to get their degrees and additional efforts for certification.We should pay them for their skills and strengths in seeing that all of Oklahoma’s kids are ready for their adult responsibilities, and stop paying attention to those whose agenda apparently is not one that includes the success of our state or our people.
Julia Burns, Edmond
Politicians need to feel the pinch
For 30 years I listened to my customers’ stories. Being a small-business owner, you might speak to 100 people a day. I remember the retirees who would come in frustrated because the company they helped build had decided to eliminate health care from their retirement package. If the government employees work for us, then why not take away their “paid for” health insurance and put that money toward the budget woes they created? Maybe then they would understand that budgets affect everyone. My concern is politicians who are insulated from this expense.
George Brown, Oklahoma City
Prioritizing teachers
I taught in Oklahoma from 1981-97 when my husband and I moved our family to Concordia, Kansas. When I was hired, the principal apologized because it was board policy at the time that newly hired teachers could not be brought in any higher than the 10th salary step. I laughed inwardly because I was going to be paid more on the 10th salary step here than I was on the 15th salary step in Bartlesville. One of the main reasons we moved was because Kansas paid its teachers better than Oklahoma. I wonder how many good teachers Oklahoma has lost over the years because the state won’t fund education. I support Oklahoma teachers, but if any of them are thinking about bailing we have several openings up here.
Lora Wade Watson, Concordia, Kan.
Here’s a plan
Regarding “Short of the Standard” (News, March 18): I read with interest, pleasure and some chagrin the first three pages of Sunday’s Oklahoman. Finally, someone is putting the problems and needs of our state front and center before the public.
Then I turned to the Opinion page, where the Oklahoma Education Association was castigated for not providing a specific plan for the needs addressed on the front page. That is not their job. I will make a few suggestions: Raise the state income tax. Restore the gross production tax to 7 percent. Increase the tax on cigarettes, which will not only provide revenue but also make it more difficult for young people to begin what may be for them a deadly habit. Increase the tax on gasoline. Pass meaningful criminal reform so we can eliminate private prisons that warehouse people and provide nothing in the way of rehabilitation. Provide means by which those currently imprisoned for minor drug possession can be released more quickly.
I take no credit for the originality of these ideas; they have been bantered about in the Legislature and by people seriously concerned with improving the state of Oklahoma for a number of years. Only the Legislature can act to change the way things are done in Oklahoma, and it’s way past time for them to seriously address our revenue problem.
Margie Roetker, Oklahoma City