Rally for Education-A Guide for Parents

For the next few posts I am going to shift gears a little bit and aim this at parents. You may or may not have heard about the Oklahoma Rally for Education that will be at the State Capitol on March 31st at 10:30.  What I would like to do is give you a few of the reasons for the rally, and also counter some of the propaganda that is being presented to undermine the rally.  I want to keep each post short, so this will take a few posts to accomplish adequately.

Some are saying that this is a teacher strike trying to get better pay.  Better pay for teachers and other school staff would be great and there is legislation being proposed to attempt to raise pay for teachers, but that is not the reason for the rally.  

The rally is to encourage the legislature to find dedicated funding sources for education similar to what is done for the department of transportation. The state department of transportation is guaranteed money before the legislative bodies can even talk budget.  As a parent and educator I feel my child is more important than fixing potholes and there should be dedicated revenue going into the education funding formula before the legislative bodies can parcel it out to other pet projects.  

I have mentioned this in another post, Prison, Potholes and Public Education,  but think it is worth repeating.  Over the last five years the student population in Oklahoma has increased by roughly 35,000 students.  During that same time period, per pupil spending has decreased by $243.60 per year.  This doesn't sound like much when you think about one child, but translate that to an entire building or district and the figures get astronomical.

Just to give you an idea of how much money this would be, I have 530 students enrolled.  Each student is given a multiplier based on the grade they are in and if they have a disability of some sort.  The average multiplier for my district is 1.6, so my 530 students equals 848 students in the funding formula (a thorough explanation of the way the funding formula works would require another series of posts, maybe another time).  If we multiply that weighted average daily membership by the decreased per student spending that is a decrease of $206,572.80.  That is more than four teachers that could possibly be on this campus if funding were comparable to five years ago.  This is just for one campus in one district.  Imagine this carried over to the Oklahoma City or Tulsa school districts.

Not only are schools getting less money per student, but expenses have gone up every year since the legislature started dedicating fewer dollars per student to education.  Think about what has happened to fuel prices over the last five years or the price of construction materials.  Nothing is cheaper than it was five years ago, so why are spending less money per student and talking about tax cuts for big corporations?

Some will argue that we need to offer tax breaks to keep the oil and gas industry booming.  Look at North Dakota.  They have a tax rate of 15% for the oil and gas industry yet they are more prosperous than we are.  That argument just doesn't hold water.  

Remember, the rally is not about teacher pay, it is not a strike.  It is about students and it is a planned professional day for many districts. In fact, the schools are not paying for the fuel, groups of concerned citizens in each community are covering the cost of fuel. While teachers are riding to the Oklahoma Capitol that day, they will be collaborating and planning instruction across subject areas and grade levels.  

If you want more information go to the rally Facebook page, follow on Twitter or email.  As parents it is vital that you let the legislature know it is time to stop cheating our students out of vital resources.

If you want more resources or want to join the discussion, follow #oklaed and #ok4ed14 on Twitter or checkout some of these Oklahoma Education Bloggers.