Issue Position: Funding Public Education

Issue Position

Our children are our future. Oklahoma children must graduate ready to compete with graduates from others states like Texas, but also internationally, with graduates from countries like China and India. In order for our children to be successful in life, and to ensure that our economy thrives, we must make sure that every Oklahoma child has access to a quality education.

That means making sure that class sizes are small enough to allow teachers time to give each student the individualized attention he or she needs to learn. It also means raising teacher pay to a level that is competitive not only with other states in our region, but the entire country. Too many teachers are working two or three jobs just to live. We shouldn't be okay with that. It's time to prioritize our children and our teachers.

We've seen through actions at the Capitol in 2018 that there's an enormous amount of work left to do to restore our education funding to previous year's levels while remaining competitive in our region.
This session, the Oklahoma House did something both historic and remarkable. We overcame the 75% threshold to raise taxes for the first time since that rule was enacted. We did it in order to raise revenue to give teachers and state employees a much-needed raise. In fact, it's the biggest teacher raise in state history. That's historic.

What's remarkable about it is that, despite how historic it is, it's not enough. It's a great start. It's a compromise. It's a step in the right direction. It's equitable. It asks wealthy corporations and individuals to pay their fair share.

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