Few solutions presented during rally for education Our Views Asking for more money is the easy part PUBLISHED: APRIL 3, 2014, Daily Oklahoman OKLAHOMA teachers and administrators rallied at the state Capitol this week, making clear they want more money. Exactly how much money is truly needed? Where will it come from? Aside from a few nebulous suggestions, participants didnt say. Thats a big problem for their cause. One figure bandied about was $200 million. Yet that sum is hardly a game changer. In the 2013 budget year, Oklahoma public school funds totaled more than $8.2 billion in state, local and federal dollars. Boosting state appropriations by $200 million would increase that figure by just 2.4 percent. Some rally participants suggested lawmakers have failed to prioritize school funding. Yet education, including state colleges, received 51 percent of appropriations in the current state budget. K-12 schools specifically got more than $2.3 billion. This was more than the state appropriations for the Department of Human Services, Medicaid and prisons — combined. In this fiscal environment, K-12 funding increases likely require spending cuts elsewhere. Rally participants didnt offer any suggestions. Attendees also were silent about the role of other state programs in siphoning money away from education. In particular, Medicaid spending has exploded since 2000. Further expansion of the program, sought by some officials at the rally, would cost the state at least $850 million over 10 years. Every dollar spent on the effort is a dollar not going to schools. Yet rally participants voiced no objection. Some attendees voiced opposition to income tax cuts; others called for raising taxes on horizontal drilling. The oil and gas industry already generates 22 percent of all state tax revenue. Increased taxation could cause drilling to decline and quickly translate into a budget shortfall for schools. Another option touted by some attendees was House Bill 2642. The legislation would earmark future money for public schools, providing another $57 million this year and gradually increasing that amount until an additional $575 million was provided annually by 2023. Supporters say this will pump an extra $3.2 billion combined into schools over a decade. But lawmakers previously increased state school funding by $524 million in just four years, between 2005 and 2009. From 2005 to 2014, lawmakers provided an extra $3.3 billion in state school funding above the 2005 baseline. Clearly, rally attendees believe this is insufficient. At best, HB 2642 would increase state school spending at the same rate as in the past. Ultimately, its a status quo measure. Money undoubtedly matters, but so does how you spend money. That point was made clear this week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Nicholas Simmons, a math teacher at Success Academy Harlem West Middle School in New York City. Simmons noted his students are thriving academically despite a background of urban poverty. He said Success Academy teachers embrace testing, higher standards and academic rigor. “I grew up in an affluent Connecticut suburb, attended an elite private school, and had many advantages the children in my school do not,” Simmons wrote. “Yet students are getting a far better education than I did.” Similar pro-reform rhetoric was in short supply at the Capitol rally. Its easy to ask for money. But to really make a difference, rally participants need to provide a credible, concrete plan of action that identifies financial resources and demonstrates how extra funding would be used to increase student achievement.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:50:07 +0000
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