This has been a tough week for Oklahoma public education: Yesterday a bill moved out of committee to the full state senate that would legalize vouchers. If passed, this would allow public funds to be used by private schools. Earlier this week a bill was proposed that would cut funding for AP US History classes.
It seems that no matter how much education funding has been cut from Oklahoma’s budget over the past few years, the state legislature is determined to divert more of it to special interests while ignoring the schools that educate the greatest percentage of our state’s children.
Some Reasons To Hope
If you haven’t seen the video from ForThePeople.com, I have posted it above as a reminder that we must begin saying “yes” to the students in our state. It’s not difficult to understand that if we don’t adequately fund and support public schools, we are neglecting to provide the best for our schools, discouraging educators from serving in our state, damaging our own economic interests, and remaining at a competitive disadvantage with other states.
Share the For The People initiative with others, and think about the thousands of across our state who need our support. They also provide a helpful guide you can share with your parents and community so they know how they can better support schools. Here’s one important point from the guide: “Oklahoma public schools have been asked to do more with less since 2008. More than $200 million has been cut while enrollment increased by 40,000.”
Now It’s Your Turn
Share the video link with others and ask them to add their voice in support of our schools by telling their legislators to stop voting “no” for public schools and start voting “yes”.
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