OCPA Impact
New public opinion data suggests a substantial number of Oklahoma voters prefer to see a teacher pay raise funded with cost savings from making other state government spending more efficient, rather than a sales tax increase.
The survey data also indicates if state lawmakers had provided a $5,000 pay raise for Oklahoma teachers in the recent legislative session, public support would likely plummet for a measure on the ballot this fall to hike sales taxes in order to increase teacher salaries.
The surveys in question were conducted by telephone in 11 state House districts, May 16-19. The surveys produced data from 3,461 individual respondents in rural and metropolitan areas across the state.
In seven of the districts surveyed, respondents were likely general election voters. In the other four districts, respondents were likely Republican primary voters.
In each of the 11 legislative districts, GOP incumbents are facing off this year against challengers in the primary or general election.
Several trends stood out from the surveys:
-Voters overwhelmingly believe teachers should receive a pay raise. This is in line with a statewide survey last year that indicated over 97% of Oklahoma voters supported a teacher salary increase. (LINK)
-Support was initially strong among respondents for a proposal on the statewide ballot later this year to fund a teacher pay raise and other spending increases by raising Oklahoma’s sales tax burden to the highest of any U.S. state. The ballot proposal, State Question 779, is championed by Univ. of Oklahoma President David Boren and others.
-Nonetheless, voters strongly preferred a teacher pay raise be funded using cost savings from reductions in nonessential state spending, rather than a tax increase. This reflects another statewide survey, released Mar. 2, which found voters wanted teacher pay raises to be financed with existing taxpayer dollars instead of a tax increase. (LINK)
-If state lawmakers had provided a $5,000 teacher pay raise during the legislative session, which ended in May, voter support for SQ 779 would likely fall enough for the ballot measure to be defeated. The prospect of funding a teacher pay raise without a tax increase resulted in an average drop in voter support for SQ 779 of over 18 percentage points.
The surveys were conducted by Clout Research on behalf of OCPA Impact, Inc., a nonpartisan advocacy organization based in Oklahoma City.
“Oklahoma families don’t want to pay higher taxes, they just want the teachers who work with their children in the classroom every day to receive a meaningful pay raise,” said Dave Bond, OCPA Impact’s CEO. “At a time when thousands of Oklahomans statewide have lost employment because of depressed oil prices, raising taxes is not the answer.”
On this teacher pay raise: should the worst teacher in the school get the same raise as the best one? Isn’t that unfair to the best one? Indeed, isn’t that unfair to the worst one? After all, if the worst one got little or no pay raise, it might give that person an idea that the teaching profession is not his/her best use of talents [whatever they may be].
Considering that Boren and his boys just initiated a 7% raise in 2017 tuition and fees, it appears to me that they decided that the voters are not going to approve their 1% sales tax increase, so, to heck with the voters.
Shame on Boren and his henchmen.