Parents, you have the right to shortchange your children’s education. If you want to decide what they are not allowed to learn, you can homeschool them or pay for a private school with a curriculum of your choice. What you don’t have is the right to shortchange public education or use public funding to pay for your private choices.
Public schools must account for every dollar, despite the politicized show from our governor whose additional audit sent public dollars into someone’s private pocket. That’s the governor’s MO. He likes to hire out, for big money, jobs that the state of Oklahoma is already required to do – this despite the fact that Oklahoma is near the bottom in per pupil funding.
Legislators, you don’t have the right to rewrite American history or to dictate curriculum. Your job is to properly fund public education, and it is in the state’s best interest that you do so. Leave the curriculum to education experts.
Which would you rather fund, education now or social services that undereducated people will require as adults? I can tell you which one is the moral choice. It also happens to be the most economically conservative choice.
How would you prefer to balance the budget so that schools get the funds they need? Cutting taxes is not an option.
It’s time for legislators to do the job that they were elected to do. They can start by saying no to SB 1647, an ill-conceived bill that would strip public schools of funding. Parents have the right to send their children to private schools already, but not at the expense of public schools. Let’s make sure public schools, both urban and rural, are the best possible option for Oklahoma’s children.
Funding education is the responsible thing to do. So is voting no on SB 1647. Making Oklahoma a Top 10 state is a laudable goal, but it won’t happen if you don’t respect educators and properly fund the state’s schools.
