Man What A Week!?!?

  I will have to admit I have had better weeks than this last one. What started as a shocker with the news of Supt. Hofmeister being charged with felony campaign allegations, the resignation of Ryan Owens as executive director at CCOSA for his connection, the small group of Education Candidates to win, and the sound defeat of State Question 779. Not necessarily what I had in mind for this election year.

  It seems that in the aftermath two camps, as expected, have developed. The first camp is this was the last straw. Those that will more than likely quickly exit and look for jobs outside of education or actually move to one of the other 49 states that pay more than Oklahoma. The second camp will be those that will try to find positives and move on to the next step. Look to the legislative season and hope for progress. Try to forge new relationships and keep on plugging.

  I don't guess it matters too much which camp I fall under. To say I haven't thought about moving would be a lie. I have family that lives in the North Texas area. Here is my kicker tho, I consider myself to be a leader. Most superintendent better be huh! As a leader, I can't accept the being in the first camp. As a competitor by nature, I can't accept being in the first camp. Not today anyways.

  Up until the last week I have felt that #oklaed has really made some ground, collectively. Not one person, not one organization, not just one school district but as a whole. As a leader I can't let a bad week determine that I'm done. If I have one tough week, as a superintendent, I can't say I'm outta here. You forge ahead. When I was coaching and building a program if I suffered and upset or progress slow I didn't stop the rebuilding process. You regroup, put more time in, and keep moving forward no matter how slow.

 The facts to me are, if it is worth fighting for in the first place, it's worth suffering a setback or two to make huge gains. I'm not going to let a bad week and some setbacks determine that I am done fighting for #oklaed and its 700,000 students. What kind of leader abandons ship when the times get tough? Not one I want to follow. Now I'm no leader of the #oklaed movement, but I sure hope those that are will stay the course. Regroup, reassess, and replot a new plan. Rally the troops and win the war not quit over the loss of a battle!

       

Educational Investment Lacking

Educational Investment Lacking

As you can see in the chart above Oklahoma is severely underfunding education compared to its neighboring states. This probably isn’t anything most people haven’t heard. But when you realize that the states of Kansas, Arkansas, and New Mexico all have a smaller population you can’t just say it is state size. It’s simply a collective investment in our future. The future for our kids and grandkids. Our overall tax burden is 45th in the nation. No one likes them but we are by no means an overtaxed state.

The students of Purcell and the state of Oklahoma are going to be competing for scholarships and jobs against the students of these other states. All who have had a significant larger investment put in them. A student in neighboring Kansas will have $40,000 - $45,000 more spent on them than a student in Oklahoma. It is a major disservice to our students and our state's future.

Just in the last year alone, according to the National Center for Education Statistics annual report, Oklahoma has fallen another $100 Million dollars behind. Every year that our state fails to prioritize education we fall farther behind. Our state suffers, Our students suffer, and Purcell suffers.

Since 2008 Oklahoma Public Schools have been cut 26.9%, the steepest cuts in the nation, and over 12% more than 2nd worse state Alabama at 14.2%. It’s these cuts that have us contemplating 4 day weeks, laying off teachers, and the number of emergency certified teachers soaring. Hopefully in the near future our state can rebound and fully fund education again.

In 1991 after the landmark HB 1017 was put into place Oklahoma ranked 20th in the nation per pupil expenditures. Out ranking Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kansas. We are now billions of dollars behind them.  Now some 25 years later we are last. Last in teachers pay. It’s time for a change. My hope is the upcoming elections and and legislative season change our future. Put us on a new course.

Don't Forget The Positives

  I started out my career in education as a teacher/coach. I coached many sports, but if I had a specialty it was basketball, and girls basketball more specific. I spent 7 years as a head coach and 8 years as an assistant coach. During my time I was fortunate enough to have some success. I have coached in three state tournaments, had the pleasure of coaching tons of great students, numerous all staters, several D-1 athletes, and even one play pro overseas for a few seasons.

  With all that success when I was coaching I never took much time dwelling or  really acknowledging the things my teams did well. I always felt it was my job to fix our weaknesses to make us better. To win more games, to be more successful. As I look back as an aging vet I think I was wrong! I should have taken more time with my players and students to acknowledge what we did well. I think we need to do that as a profession as well during this time.

  There is no doubt that in our state right now we have a lot we are focused on, to make our states education system better. We have a huge election coming up to get our teachers a much needed raise. We have the opportunity to get several pro education candidates elected to our state legislature. These are all very important. Not to mention running schools and educating kids on the least amount of funding we have ever had. Changing these are all very worthy endeavors.

  But I would challenge everyone to not forget the success. The things going right. We have a wonder state leader who truly advocates for education. We have new state standards that were written by talented Oklahoman's. It seems every day I see new material coming up to support them whether it is pacing guides or curriculum maps. We have a state department that listens. That holds town meetings. The OSSBA has created a  wonderful Go Open solution with their Digital Resources that is going to include resources for all grades. ACT test takers increase.  I can go on and on. At your districts you have success upon success that you could talk about as well. So while you're fighting the good fight, and by all means keep fighting, don't forget the successes. Don't forget all things going well. Just a lesson learned I would like to share.

How Much More Can We Take???

  I try to be an upbeat guy. I try to be pretty positive. When I walk around my school, I feel good about what I see, the people I work with, the product they produce. The students here are great! The problem I have is the constant news that filters my way.

  When you are reading about 926 emergency certificates so far this year. The average teacher salary is worth $7,711 less today than when it was in 2009-2010. It would take a $6,100 to match the cost of living in Oklahoma and we are just trying like heck to get a $5,000 raise. Knowing the legislature passed a budget with $600 Million in one time monies and passed a tax cut to create a $700 million budget shortfall just has me wondering How Much More Can We Take?

  When I talk about the sales tax initiative with people I firmly admit that I am not a fan of sales tax increases. I truly believe they are regressive and unproportionately hurt poorer families. What I say though, is we have waited eight years for someone else to throw a lifeline and it hasn't happened. There is no real other choice. We have to get a teacher raise this way, even though it's not the best. My big concern is what if it fails? What if OPCA and the ultra conservative right spend enough to sway enough people to vote against it? What happens? Is that the last straw for the hard working teachers? Why wouldn't it be?

  I think it is imperative that we do all we can. Relying on a legislature, no matter how many public education supporters get elected into office, is not an option. I don't know how much more Oklahoma public education to take. We lose so many good people each year. The talent pool is shrinking. The experts are fleeing and we must stem the tide. State Question 779 is the first step, in my opinion, to restore public education back to being the cornerstone it has always been.

Education Savings Accounts.... Or Fools Gold?

Governor Fallin on Thursday made the statement that she wanted the legislators to send her an Educational Savings Account Bill for her to sign. If you aren't aware what an Educational Savings Account is, It is a fancy term for a voucher because voucher has a negative connotation and won't get out of committee. Basically what those who favor ESA's plan is to set aside a certain amount of money for families to use wherever they see fit. They can choose what school gets "their money". It can be a homeschool or a private school.

To help sell this ESA crap the proponents say it will raise per pupil spending. What they do is not give the full amount of the state's per pupil spending amount. Currently the state's per pupil spending is in the $8,600 range. If a person is Economically Disadvantaged they get 90% of the funds they would have generated at their old school. The formula shrinks the amount as your household income rises. The funds can be used for tutoring, virtual school, Higher education courses, and of course private schools.

So lets look at how this will work for a family that is at or below the poverty line. If per pupil spending is $8600 then that family would receive $7,740. Based on a quick search of Heritage Hall, I will use them as my example. For a student in Pre-k through 4th grade it costs $13,775, 5th -6th it cost $14,380, and 7th thru 12th is $18,400. These fees do not include books, lunch, or related costs. If a student needed special education services those fees would be additional as well. So best case scenario for a family that is classified as Economically Disadvantaged they would have to come up with $6,035 plus related expenses. This may be tough for a family living on such meager means.

So who does it help? For someone who is let's say more, well off. Maybe some of those people who are actually seeing a refund worth mentioning from our newly enacted quarter percent tax cut. How nice would it be for someone who is already going to a private school to receive a nice $2,500 check to do what you were already doing? How nice would it be if you  were homeschooling your child and to receive 60% of the per pupil spending because your income is 1.5 times above the poverty level and you get a $5,160 to "tutor" your child?

If every homeschooling student in Oklahoma gets a check for $2,500 to $7,740 so they can be "tutored" how will that impact our state aid money? Can we for sure say that it won't negatively impact aid to public schools? Obviously with money going to private entities, there will be no accountability. But when your agenda is to defund public schools what do you care.

If this passes I urge teachers to do one thing. Find 15 economically disadvantaged students in your  class you are ready teaching, begin "tutoring" these students and maybe you will finally earn a wage that you deserve!!

My other question is since when does anyone have a "share" of public money? Government is to provide basic services to its people. Some of those include Education, Public Safety, Roads, and Health. What is my "share" of these services and do I get to give my share to a private entity that I think does it better? If these legislators don't want to apply this to other government services, then it is clear their objective is one thing. Damage Oklahoma Public Schools. It's not about  choice we already have that and have for decades. It's about a private agenda to continue to help a small elect few. Our government has never been about having a "share" and deciding where it goes. It's about pooling money for the greater good. Of which public education is a pillar and vital for future success!! We need to fight this with all we got!!

The Truth on School Consolidation

Boy o Boy is Oklahoma in trouble. Over a $900 million budget deficit (and growing). With the Oklahoma legislature about to reconvene on the first of February I thought I would put my two cents in. One of the things we are hearing is that the Republican leadership will use the deficit to try to consolidate schools. We hear this some every year, but this year seems to be a big push.  Legislators are really good at trying to pit people or groups against each other and try to put the blame on one side for why things are they way they are. Currently the Republican leadership is trying to convince teachers that the reason they haven't had a raise in a decade is because we spend too much on administration cost and have too many districts. Let me try to show why that's not true or a solution to our problem.

Let me first say that we currently have a $900 million revenue failure and we give away 1.7 Billion dollars in tax credits. We instituted a .25% tax cut that is going to cost us another $150 million in lost revenue. Recent tax cuts have cost us over another billion dollars, and tax breaks to oil and gas another $200 million. I say this to make the point that if the legislature wanted to raise teacher's salaries they could make it real easy with better budget management, that we all use in our own houses.

School consolidation falls into two categories. You are either closing schools and having larger districts or you are consolidating school district administration services. For a little background school money spent on administration is capped based on your school size. The highest level is 8 percent. If you eliminated all administrators in Oklahoma you couldn't raise teachers' salaries enough to move up even one spot in state comparison teacher salaries. Let alone even get to the regional average.

The first method is just to have fewer schools serving more students. Here is the biggest problem I see. What district do you know that has the space to take on even small districts? Schools are already busting at the seems. Our building funds have never kept up with the times to build buildings so districts are faced with passing bonds. If a larger district absorbs two or three other schools that each have 200 or 300 kids where are they going to put them and how is that district going to raise the funds build those buildings? Pass Bonds? State Money? From where, we are behind $900 million now and growing. Have you priced school building lately? Those things aren't on the clearance section. Walmart doesn't have rollbacks for those. There are other issues like busing, safety, additional staff, including additional administrators to handle the additional kids.

The second option is to leave buildings open just consolidate administrative services. A recent plan put forward had it going from 500 to 200 Oklahoma school districts for administration. The average salary plus benefits for an Oklahoma school administrator is $100,000. So there is a savings of $30 million if all those administrators quit working. Not enough for a $1,000 raise, but a savings. There's two big problems. One, if buildings don't close there will need to be a principal or someone to handle discipline issues or day to day operations. Evaluate teachers, staff, you get the picture. So that $30 million shrinks in a hurry. In most of the smaller school districts the administrator does several jobs. They are not superintendent alone. Some are principals, some teach classes, coach, drive buses, etc. Again, you get the picture. You can't just eliminate 300 administrators, keep the buildings open, and save a lot money.

As you can see consolidation doesn't save money? Are there too many districts? Maybe, maybe not. There are some amazing small districts. Ever tried to get a large group of people to agree or work on a project? The bottom line is  this is just a tactic used to try to place blame. Pit groups against each other. The facts don't change. If the Republican leadership wants teacher raises they can make budget changes and do it. They just have to have the political courage to stand up and admit what they are doing is not working, but they are willing to change.