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.