Oklahoma House Democrats | April 1, 2010

Republican legislators have missed a key deadline for funding education, leaving Oklahoma school districts and teachers to struggle with uncertainly and unable to plan for the next school year.

Members of the House of Representatives were reminded of their failure at the end of today’s session by Rep. Scott Inman, D-Del City, who noted that it was April 1, and that once again the deadline for funding education had passed without the required action. The Fund Education First Act, adopted in 2003, requires the legislature to finalize common education funding by April 1, which is 10 days earlier than the traditional deadline for school districts to have teacher contracts in place.

“During the six years since Republicans took control of the Oklahoma House of Representatives they have met the deadline only once,” noted Democratic Floor Leader Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah. “They were crowing about what a great job they did when they got the job done on time for once in 2007, but here we are again, missing the deadline for the third straight year.  The words of the Republicans say one thing, but their actions go in the opposite direction. They’re driving this bus, and they need to be thrown out of the driver’s seat before we go over a cliff.”

Apparently aware of their own inability or unwillingness to meet the funding deadline, Republicans last year passed SB394, which moves the date to finalize teacher contracts from April 10 to the first Monday in June. Despite that change, the legal requirement for the legislature to complete the education budget by April 1 remains in effect.

“Thanks to the current majority party, we have spent two months hearing one politically-motivated bill after another while ignoring this approaching deadline. As a result of these misplaced priorities, teachers and schools across the state are left in limbo because the legislature hasn’t done its job,” commented Rep. Inman, who is Minority Leader-elect for the next legislative session. “The Fund Education First law contains no penalty for failing to meet the deadline, so only voters can hold Republicans accountable for this failure.”

Meanwhile, school districts around the state are contemplating travel restrictions, hiring freezes, early retirement incentives, even shorter school weeks, all in an effort to identify possible areas where savings can be achieved if they don’t receive enough state funding. They are also looking at the school district version of a nuclear option—the possible elimination of teaching positions and acceptance of larger than appropriate class sizes.

In an effort to avoid a repetition of this situation, Rep. Brown plans to draft an amendment to the Fund Education First law that would impose a financial penalty on every representative and senator for each day they violate the law by failing to finalize education funding.

“Poll after poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Oklahomans view the proper funding of education as state government’s most important responsibility, but it’s apparent from their behavior that the leaders in the majority party don’t share that view,” said Rep. Cannaday, D-Porum. “Here we are on April 1, just a few weeks from the end of this legislative session, and we have yet to tell our school districts how much revenue they will have to work with next year. It’s easy to pay lip service to education, but I say, if you want to know where the real priorities lie, follow the money. Right now, there is no money. What does that say about the priorities of the majority party?”

Rep. Cannaday, who serves as the Senior Education Advisor for the caucus and sits on the Appropriations and Budget subcommittee on Education states he has yet to see any budgetary efforts made to fund education.

“How can we expect Oklahomans to respect the laws we pass, when we ignore the law that requires us to meet one of our most important responsibilities?” he asked. “Either you support education or you don’t.”