August 10, 2010
Vince Orza, Special to The Sun
Edmond Sun
EDMOND — I often write and speak about the poor quality of Oklahoma’s educational system. We’ve been at the bottom in virtually every category of measurement for decades. I’ve been a public school teacher and I’m back in the education business now. I can speak firsthand about a system that doesn’t reward success or punish failure. Worse yet, it accepts failure in the form of tenure, which protects poor performing teachers. There are no real or measurable requirements for teachers to prove they have kept current in their fields and the certification process measures what they’ve studied not how well they teach.
The discussions around education reform always revolve around money. HB 1017 was supposed to fund our schools for success and bring teachers’ salaries to a competitive level. While 1017 was crafted with good intentions, the end result has been, we’ve spent the money but have no significant improvements in our public school systems, of which there are still too many!
Now comes State Question 744, which if approved by voters will “guarantee that the Oklahoma Legislature annually will provide an amount of funding for public schools that is at least equal to the average of the amount spent per pupil by the states surrounding Oklahoma (Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado).”
A quick review of public school rankings would lead someone to think if we want to be better, then perhaps mirroring what our surrounding states spend may not be the best idea. Kansas, Colorado and Missouri are in the top 25 rankings from elementary schools in the U.S., while Texas is No. 32, Arkansas is 40th, New Mexico is 50th and Oklahoma is 41st. At the middle school level, Colorado is ninth, Kansas 12th and Missouri 20th but Texas is 33rd, Arkansas 43rd, New Mexico is 50th while Oklahoma is ranked 36th... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Tue, August 10, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski