Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi
Writing in the Tulsa World
The backpacks are out of the closet. Yellow buses are trundling down our streets. School is back in session. And there’s good news. Our students are more prepared for college and careers than ever before.
When I decided to run for this office, I did it because I believe we can improve Oklahoma’s schools and give Oklahoma children a better start in life. The evidence shows we’re steadily advancing that goal: Our schools are getting better, and our students are achieving more.
At the same time, however, Oklahoma has a critical shortage of quality teachers. Next to a parent, a good teacher is the single most important factor in the success of a child. To make Oklahoma’s schools the best in the country, we need to attract and retain the best teachers.
All around Oklahoma, I’ve heard stories of good teachers leaving for greener pastures in other states. It’s time to bring them home.
That’s why I’ve asked Oklahoma’s district school boards and superintendents to help me give every teacher in Oklahoma a $2,000 pay increase starting in the next fiscal year.
To make this a reality, we need to come up with a total of $100 million more for Oklahoma’s teachers. During the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Oklahoma’s schools have built up an annual carryover in excess of $700 million. That’s money that largely sits in a bank account, not helping a single student learn or teacher teach.
If we use just 10 percent of that money – $70 million – to help give teachers a raise, we can cover most of the cost of a teacher pay raise while still maintaining a healthy cushion in districts yearly carryover that will cover emergency needs.
Out of all the revenues that come to Oklahoma’s schools – $4.4 billion – our schools had in excess of $2 billion that was NOT spent on salaries or benefits for instructional personnel. That’s over $2 billion in administration and overhead.
By re-prioritizing less than 2 percent of this amount, statewide we could have the last $30 million dollars we need to raise our teacher’s salaries.
With only a 10 percent reduction in carryover and a 2 percent cut in overhead, we can give every teacher in Oklahoma a $2,000 raise. That $2,000 would move Oklahoma teachers ahead of their counterparts in Arkansas and nearly tie Missouri’s teacher salaries. The pay gap with Texas would be slashed by more than half.
It’s not everything our teachers deserve. But it’s a start.
Since taking office, I’ve cut operational overhead in my department by $250,000 a month. That’s 28 percent of our overhead. If the State Department of Education can do that, school districts can surely find 2 percent to re-prioritize for teachers.
When I campaigned for office, I promised to enact important education reforms, and I have followed through with the assistance of Gov. Mary Fallin and legislative leaders.
We’ve raised academic standards. We’ve required greater accountability and transparency, giving parents easy to understand measurement of schools’ performance. We’ve increased funding for the Lindsey Nicole Henry scholarship program for students with special needs. We’ve increased opportunities and support for parents who choose to home school, as well as those who want online learning options. Our Career Tech centers are thriving, preparing thousands of young Oklahomans for the good-paying jobs of the 21st century. And we’re working hard to increase parental involvement throughout the system.
Education reform is making a difference. Our objective now is to determine how we can keep improving: create better schools, better learning environments.
That effort requires attracting the best teachers and rewarding those who improve children’s lives with their dedicated work. As we’ve raised the bar for education in Oklahoma, both students and their teachers have risen to the challenge. It’s time we show those teachers our appreciation.
I hope local school boards and local administrators will join with me to put $2,000 into the pockets of each teacher: we owe that to our kids.
This is a total lie on funding this raise.Schools have to have a buffer of money to start school each year or to try to get through problems like these storm damages.Her department is constantly defective in how they pay our schools which cause tremendous cash flow problems in managing school districts.She needs to look in the mirror on running in a common sense manner.Schools also are on yearly budgets which they can’t exceed, so any conservative minded person would know that you have to have some kind of reserve fund or be slacking that duty.
While I believe that most teachers deserve a raise (based on merit) – it is not true that we have a teacher shortage overall. We keep hearing this year after year and it simply isn’t true.
Barresi and any politician in support of Common Core needs to be replaced.