EDITORIAL: Money for nothing
May 20—It's going to be hard to forget that the governor and legislature created an education funding package that essentially works as a tax break for wealthy Oklahomans.
It's odd. Usually, big changes in education funding is preceded by a public outcry. Most Oklahomans are aware that we can't keep losing teachers to other states that offer better livelihoods.
But, who really, among the greater public, asked for private school parents to get tax breaks?
It surely didn't spring from any of our rural school districts.
Just judging by what we know from the last two years, it seemed to be conjured up by our politicians.
Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat introduced a plan last year for vouchers or education savings accounts and House Speaker Charles McCall wouldn't even acknowledge it.
We know Gov. Kevin Stitt and then-Sec. of Education Ryan Walters had been campaigning on what they call school choice, but all they ever said was that "money would follow the student."
It's all laughably transparent that this stuff is cooked up by these charter and private school lobbyists who donate to campaigns.
Taxpayer money is going to fund private schools and no one who approved it is saying "why" it needed to happen. Only that we needed "compromise" and a "new approach."
Just tax credits — for people who were already paying for private school.
No explanation on how that improves public education.
And, teachers will get their raises and still lag behind the rest of the states. We'll have to address it again in a couple of years. Public schools will still be funded, but what happens when this big bill comes up at a time when oil is in decline?
Who's on the chopping block, then?
