How Much Is Spent Per Student In the Classroom?

ARE THE NEWS REPORTS THE TRUTH OR JUST HYPE

THE OKLAHOMA WATCHMAN...

  We as parents all want what is best for our children. When it comes to their education we feel that no expense should be spared. Yet we have been betrayed by our elected officials and school administrators all around. We’re told that the state spends just over $8,000.00 per student per year in the classroom, but is that true. Who are the people that came up with those figures? What are the actual figures? These are all questions that parents need to know the answer to.

  The first article of interest I found was this New analysis of public school spending leaves out local spending - Watchdog.org. This article comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the partisan politics being played in Washington D.C. these days. The report is put out by a Liberal think tank and indicates that Oklahoma has made some of the steepest cuts in education funding since the depression hit in 2008. There is no denying that education spending along with spending in every category of government was and continues to be hit hard by the 2008 depression that continues to linger to this day.

  The next article of interest we found was this New report: Oklahoma's education funding per student drops even more. Now the organization that developed this report bills itself as a bi-partisan think tank. After reviewing the material available on line I find that they are far from bi-partisan. They are another left of center think tank working for progressive causes and ways to subjugate freedom loving Americans to the will of the New World Order.

  The next article of interest I found was this Per Pupil Spending Varies Heavily Across the United States. This article was put out by the Census bureau and is actually incorrect. In fact they also fail to take into consideration spending provided by local taxes to the school districts. You must understand that so far all the organizations I have listed are liberal in nature and they have designs on turning states currently under Republican control into Democratic control by making the Republican parties look weak in education.

  The next article of interest I found was this www.okddc.ok.gov/pdf/briefing/ok_sp_ed_funding.pdf. This article should be extremely important to all parents with children who are disabled. This will give you some insight as to how funding for special needs students is determined at the federal level. Unfortunately there is no indication on how it is determined on the state level.

  By now we have all heard of OU President Boren’s proposal for a one cent tax increase that would give teachers a five thousand dollar a year pay increase. That’s a half measure. Only seventy percent of that tax increase would go to public education. The rest would go to higher education and work force development. This is a very bad idea and would drive jobs and citizens away from the State of Oklahoma.

Sen. David Holt

  The next article of interest I found was this The Okie » Holt Outlines Bold Plan For $10K Teacher Pay Raise. The premise and motivation are correct. This is not something that can be accomplished by one single piece of legislation. It also cannot be completed in one year. However if he considers that teachers are underpaid by ten thousand dollars a year now, incremental increases will need to include a period of time longer than he is expecting to bring teacher salaries up to national standards.

Speaker Jeff Hickman

The next item of interest we found I found was this Oklahoma House Speaker Jeff Hickman: State agencies would be 'devastated' if education not cut - Tulsa World: Capitol Report. What’s in the report isn’t what bothers me, but what isn’t in the report that does. There are literally dozens of state agencies that have been created whose work is duplicated by some other agency. A prime example is the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Two agencies in charge of highways in the state. There is no reason for this to happen except to make some political ally happy. The money saved from combining these agencies would be enormous.

Comparing the States

  The next article I found was this Oklahoma public schools among worst in the nation | KFOR.com. I took a look at the source material that they listed in their report and was not surprised to see that the information was old and inaccurate. It also used strictly sources that were liberal sites.  They used graduation rates from 2011-2012 school year and Education week which is an arm of the teachers union. Surely if they are going to report on something as important as our children’s education they would take the time to do a little research on their own.

  I did take the time to do the research and I confined my research to the state of Oklahoma and every state we share a common border with. The results I feel will open your eyes to the deceit of the unions and the politicians are running on the citizens of this great state.

  I’ll begin with the state of Oklahoma itself. I found this article to start things off Oklahoma Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in OK | Teacher Portal. Yes this report indicates that the salary is ranked 48^th in the nation. It also indicates that teachers have received a salary increase of twenty seven percent over the previous ten years. That doesn’t give the impression that they aren’t trying.

This next article is well worth the time of reading Teacher and School Administrator Salary Information | Oklahoma State Department of Education. This is where you’ll see all the little perks that these school districts are giving to their administrators just for going to work for them. You’ll find in some cases it’s really outlandish. That’s money that could be used for our children.

  This article comes from the U.S. Department of Education State Profiles Home Page. This is the latest information available; unfortunately it’s from the 2013-2014 school year. Recent reports from the Oklahoma State Department of Education indicate that there has been an improvement in the states averages since this report was made.

  The next article of interest I found was this Missouri Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in MO | Teacher Portal. This contains the same information on the state of Missouri as the article on Oklahoma had in it. The U.S. Department of Education provided this information State Profiles Home Page. As you can see, already there is a difference beginning to show.

  The next article of interest I found was this Arkansas Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in AR | Teacher Portal. This one is perhaps more important than any of the rest. Arkansas had already tried and failed with the one cent sales tax, as promoted by Senator Boren, for education. You can see where it got them. Coupled with this report is this State Profiles Home Page. At the time of this report, Arkansas was a Democratically controlled state whose per student spending was almost equal to Oklahoma’s but ranked higher based on cost of living alone.

  The next article of interest I found was this: Louisiana Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in LA | Teacher Portal. This indicates that the teachers there have received a thirty eight percent pay increase in the last ten years. That has moved them to the middle of the pack. There is also this article that helps to give an insight into the Louisiana Education System State Profiles Home Page. This one is particularly useful as it gives a side by side comparison with the Missouri Education System.

  The next article of interest I found was this Texas Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in TX | Teacher Portal. Texas is renowned for its language problems however this report puts Texas high in the teacher salary comfort range and in the upper thirty percent in the pay scale. You combine that with the information in this report State Profiles Home Page and it’s easy to see that the better you take care of your teachers, the better they’ll educate your children. It’s a matter of the better pay will draw the better teachers.

  The next article I found was this New Mexico Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in NM | Teacher Portal. Of all the states we share a border with, New Mexico would come the closes in dollars to what Oklahoma spends per student and teachers, but even they are ranked one step above where we are. You combine that with this article State Profiles Home Page, and you have another state that is on paper spending about as much per student as Oklahoma, but achieving far worse results. This causes one to ask if it’s the salary or the quality of the teachers they hire.

  The next article of interest I found was this Kansas Teacher Salary | Teaching Salaries in KS | Teacher Portal. Once again we see teachers who received a pay raise in the previous year that put their top salary just over the maximum salary of teachers in Oklahoma, yet they are ranked as the 41st state for teacher’s salary in the United States. If you combine that information with this State Profiles Home Page, you can see that the teachers in Kansas are doing a great job of educating their students in all fields except Science and Writing. This must be due to the quality of teachers they hire.

OU President, David Boren

  The next item of interest I found was this OK teachers’ union and allies contend public education spending is weak, but is it?To an individual who grew up in a union family this is a weak argument. I won’t deny that teachers are due a pay raise. I personally thank them for the sacrifices that they’ve made during this economic downturn. They really need to open their eyes to reality though. All the nice pictures painted for the public about our economy are simply propaganda. If the picture they paint was true, then their wouldn’t be ninety-two  million American’s out of work and out of unemployment insurance today.

Summary

  Senator Boren’s stop gap measure won’t get us where we need to be. Senator Holt’s plan may get us there eventually, but it would take us a long time to reach that goal. There has been talk at the capital of reviewing some of the tax credits that have been given out to various companies in this state. The Oklahoma State Constitution states that these tax credits have a sundown date of five years yet many of them have been going on for decades. There are currently four hundred and eighty tax credits authorized by the state. Those tax credits equal an estimated five billion dollars a year. That is where the teachers’ pay raises should come from. Not from any new taxes. The Republican Party is supposed to stand for smaller government with less interference. Somewhere along the way they lost the path and made a sharp turn to the left.