Oklahoma could learn from Finland
Oklahoma voters have important decisions to make that will impact public schools. The media on education has painted a doomsday picture: slashed budgets, stagnating teacher wages, increases in emergency certifications, falling test score averages, and standoffs between legislators and teachers during the walkout in April. Needless to say, Oklahoma appears to be in a crisis.
However, we need to stop looking at Oklahoma education as something that has failed. Instead, we must look at what can be done to make it one of the best education systems in the world.
An impossible dream? Not according to Finland, whose story began just like ours.
During the 1960s, Finland experienced a recession that led to increasing rates of emigration by skilled workers seeking better jobs and wages elsewhere. Policymakers and business stakeholders decided the key to saving their country would be a strong education system — economic reform became a reform in education. They invested tax dollars into improving schools, focused on the latest educational research, transformed the profession of teaching into one of the top careers, and provided funds for other societal safety nets to support education.
Finland’s economy, supported by better-educated, happier people, improved. The workforce returned — and even grew — as skilled labor from other European countries sought to live in this now wonderful nation.
Oklahoma and Finland are too different for us to emulate this, right? Not as different as you might think. One argument is that Finland is small, so it was easier to implement these changes. While true, its population of 5.4 million is still greater than most U.S. states (including Oklahoma). Our population of 3.9 million is not a barrier, but a blessing. Another similarity is that Finland relies heavily on a natural resource (timber), but has diversified its economy through growth in service and technology industries (remember Nokia phones?). Oklahoma likewise has an abundance of natural resources, leading the nation in energy (including clean alternatives like wind) and two major metropolitan areas ripe for potential growth in service industries — compared with Finland’s one major metropolitan of Helsinki.
Oklahoma can learn from Finland. The key lies in the teamwork needed between the government and members of the education profession.
The first step in solving our education crisis is for lawmakers and teachers to forge a positive partnership similar to the one formed in Finland in the 1960s. This will allow teachers to understand how legislative supports beyond funding could be implemented to improve their school conditions and respect for their profession, and legislators can understand the challenges facing these educators and the need for resources and funding.
The walkout revealed the struggles we face in Oklahoma to support a thriving education system. As we go to the polls, let’s remember how Finland turned its society around through a strong partnership between educators and lawmakers. We must elect officials who will build this partnership, not out of begrudging acquiescence, but out of a genuine desire to listen to teachers as professionals deserving respect. Let’s work together to make Oklahoma the educational envy of the world. It starts with your vote.