To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Observercast

Bleeding Education Dry

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BY SHARON MARTIN

A well-funded education system is good for the state’s economy. The results aren’t immediate; it takes time to educate, but if one is willing to stick around for the results, one will see that the better educated a state’s population, the higher the standard of living. The more citizens earn, the more tax revenue the state gets. Tax dollars are returned to the taxpayers in the form of needed services. Win, win, win.

The opposite is also true, and I shudder to think what Oklahoma will look like when the results of recent education decisions, from funding cuts to a loosening of standards, become clear.

What kind of education do you want for your child? Do you want your sons and daughters to think critically, or is it enough that they can spit out memorized answers? Do you want readers and leaders, or will followers of the latest fad do? Do you want teachers who respect student learning and students who respect teachers or is the current climate of disrespect good enough for you?

Our current leadership isn’t against education, they just don’t want to pay for it. Why should they allot taxes for public education when political donors can invest in education businesses for profit?

Never mind that a private system doesn’t provide for all citizens. And never mind that we pay for not educating with higher costs for corrections, social services, health care, and a smaller tax base.

Oklahoma public education is being bled to death. Add another test. The testing company gets paid. Where does the money come from? Just lay off another teacher. Class size doesn’t matter. Gut the libraries and lay off librarians. Kill CareerTech.

To attend Tech, students must maintain grades, keep up attendance, and behave. In return, they get skills that will apply to the current job market – in nursing, technology, engineering, and service trades. If the student does his part, he gets a senior scholarship to attend an additional year.

Our state leaders prefer that students get loans and pay for that stellar education. So what if fewer students are educated? So what if student loans impact spending and quality of life after graduation? So what?

Private education companies are making money, and that’s what matters. Household economies and the standard of living be damned.

By the time we realize the results of cuts and privatization, the politicians who put the system in place will be out of office. Some of them will be earning huge salaries from the private companies their ill-advised policies have endowed.

Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. Public education across the nation is in peril. Here in California, state educational system is under attack from K-16. Especially hard hit is the Cal State system and community colleges, in addition to the University of California System. Rising tuition, fewer seats for in-state residents are making education out of the reach of middle America. K – 12 schools are in trouble as well. In the more well-heeled public school districts the PTA has taken to pressuring parents for more that a $1,000 of donations per year—-and they are relentless in extracting the money. Many countries are increasing their investment in public education. Our country’s decline is slow and sure. Unfortunately too many see the cause as moral decay. Rather the selfishness of the rich to invest in their communities through taxes.

  2. Well said. The gap between rich and poor grows wider because poor parents don’t have $1000 to contribute to their child’s school. Poverty, one of whose root causes is lack of quality education, is the problem we must tackle. The solution requires investment and that requires tax revenue. Perhaps the cause of decline is moral decay–the selfishness of the privileged.

  3. You bet the testing company gets paid. If students don’t pass the tests, they don’t graduate. If the schools don’t ‘pass’ the tests, they get gutted. If the teachers don’t ‘pass’ the test, they get fired. If the testing company makes mistakes year after year, they get paid more. I have seniors who are worried that they won’t graduate because they haven’t passed enough tests even though those tests haven’t been proven valid. The winter EOIs were taken the 2nd week of Dec. It’s now the 2nd week of April and we don’t have the ‘official’ test scores back. We have ‘unofficial’ scores but we can’t tell the kids. Instead, I have parents calling me in tears.

Arnold Hamilton
Arnold Hamilton
Arnold Hamilton became editor of The Observer in September 2006. Previously, he served nearly two decades as the Dallas Morning News’ Oklahoma Bureau chief. He also covered government and politics for the San Jose Mercury News, the Dallas Times Herald, the Tulsa Tribune and the Oklahoma Journal.
Mark Krawczyk
Mark Krawczyk
March 9, 2023
Exceptional reporting about goings on in my home state as well as informative opinion pieces that makes people think about issues of the day...........get a SUBSCRIPTION FOLKS!!!!!!!
Brette Pruitt
Brette Pruitt
September 5, 2022
The Observer carries on the "give 'em hell" tradition of its founder, the late Frosty Troy. I read it from cover to cover. A progressive wouldn't be able to live in a red state without it.