Senator Kyle Loveless
Last March, approximately 25,000 teachers and parents from around the state rallied for education at the state Capitol. The overwhelming majority of those voices were asking for more funding for public education.
With 51 cents of every appropriated dollar funding education, we as lawmakers must look for out-of-the-box approaches to better fund classroom instruction, while ensuring other core functions of government remain stable.
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That’s why I introduced Senate Bill 15. This bill would require the administrative functions of a school district with an average daily attendance of fewer than 250 students be combined with a contiguous school district upon the retirement or resignation of the current superintendent. Senate Bill 15 would affect about 130 school districts across the state. Those same districts spend more than $7.4 million in superintendent salaries alone; which averages to approximately $360 per student.
Those funds could go directly to increase teacher pay, keeping quality teachers from going to another field or to attract better, new teachers from leaving the state. We can do all that without closing one school, if we have the political will.
Simply put, this proposal’s goal is to reduce the burden of administrative costs so smaller districts can free up more money for instructional and classroom services. We need to focus on educating our kids, not paying bureaucrats who average close to $100,000 a year while teacher pay remains stagnate.
This proposal alone won’t fix our schools but it is a start to modernizing our current system. Oklahoma pays nearly $50 million a year to administrators for salaries and benefits. If we can divert some of that money back to the students, then I see that as a step in the right direction.
I understand the importance of local school districts and their impact on the fabric of our state. Local schools are the heart of our communities and that will never change. This proposal would not close any school or facility, but would help ensure they have more resources to give our students the best education possible.
Oklahoma deserves better than relying on the way things have been done for more than 100 years, we must strive for the best course of action, even if it is a difficult one.
If we avoid doing something significant now to reduce administrative overhead, with supermajorities in the legislative branch and control of the governor’s mansion, we will have squandered an opportunity that took decades to accomplish and don’t deserve to speak about running government like a business ever again.
We must all work together to create a responsible, long-term plan to fix our education system, and I hope Senate Bill 15 will be the beginning of that process.
Gov. Mary Fallin said in her inaugural address that education is an all-hands-on-deck emergency, let’s do what we can to turn the tide and make the education of our children something we can be as proud of as our football teams.
