Schools Short of Money ?
Once again the Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools, Sandy Garrett, is in 'contrived panic' predicting dire consequences from a perceived shortage of money. Some of this is stated to be due to shortages of lottery funds, from those promised by the Governor and Treasurer to be forthcoming each year when the lottery proposal was up for election. Other stated shortages are due to tax revenues being reported less than originally estimated before the establishment of the current budget. One wonders just how real are these supposedly critical problems.
Looking at the published and reported on electronic media figures, one finds that the share of the State budget going to schools in Oklahoma amounts to about 58%. With a State budget of several BILLION dollars, that percentage amounts to over one billion each year. Several years ago, during a contested election for the State Superintendent position, her opponent came out with printed reports of the misdirection of funds in her office and a substantial increase in the number of employees during her years in office. This money does not educate even one student, the same as the massive expenditures the Government spends on the US Department of Education, and in my opinion is total waste.
With 77 counties in Oklahoma, we are told that there are over 500 independent school boards. Recent stories in print media in Tulsa have stated that the Leonard School District has only 22 students, but still has a Superintendent, etc. When former Congressman Steve Largent was campaigning for Governor he proposed combining a number of these very small school districts to reduce the administration expense and allow more money for classrooms. His opposition, now Governor, twisted that to tell citizens that his proposal was to actually close individual schools and make the students travel further to consolidated school buildings. Unfortunately, there was not sufficient publicity about the truth, and the voters believed this false campaign literature and the Govenor was elected.
Of course, the First Lady has been a career school teacher, and is reported to have been an active participant in the teachers union, OEA/NEA, which organization has filed a suit against the State demanding several million more dollars. This is the same group that demands that teacher pay be increased to 'the national average.' They don't admit that the cost of living in Oklahoma is a great deal less than that of say New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, or Houston. In fact, by comparison, people moving from California find that they can have a house over three times the size in Tulsa for the same money they had out there.
It is also my belief that many school districts do not do routine maintenance on their facilities and equipment, either through deliberate or ignorant designs, until the equipment or buildings are so dilapidated that they then claim they must be replaced, at great cost and with a bond issue, so that the annual funds can be used for, in my opinion, bloated administration costs.
Robert W. McDowell, Jr.
Tulsa, OK
Doing the Right Thing
I read an article in my hometown newspaper that told about a baby that died because of your new reform on people who are in your state illegally. I think your state is doing the right thing. I would like to point out that there is no such thing as illegal immigrant, it is a crime to enter this country illegally, it is called "ILLEGAL ENTRY".
I have always thought that any death that happens when a person is breaking the law, that it makes that crime a Felony. The state should find and jail that woman because her child would not be dead if she had not broken the law and entered this country illegally. If she where in her own country she could taken the child to the hospital with no fear of being found out she is a criminal.
Thank you for taking the lead in trying to correct this new crime wave.
Titus Christian
Huntsville, AL
