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John Thompson: How a Democrat Won in a Gerrymandered Red, Red District in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2018 //
3

John Thompson writes here about the surprising victory of Kendra Horn in a Congressional district that had been gerrymandered to remain permanently Republican. I thank John for telling me about Kendra Horn, who is a supporter of public education. On his recommendation and after a review of her website, I was happy to endorse her. When so many political races are decided by razor-thin margins, every endorsement counts. I would like to think that my endorsement caused a few pro-public education voters to pay attention to Kendra Horn. Thompson describes a meeting of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, which is horrifying and fascinating in its openly expressed nativism and anti-Semitism, as well as its contempt for public schools and teachers. The feverish and overwrought fear of “socialism” in this very conservative state, whose legislature has long been a subsidiary of the oil and gas industry, is surprising.

John Thompson writes:


Julian Castro says that voters want authentic candidates. America may not need traditional politicians. But we need traditionally sane leaders.

Oklahoma’s election of Kendra Horn to congress is more than one of the nation’s “biggest lurch to the left in America’s 2018 midterm election.” It is also a case study in what it takes to turn a historic Republican district, made safer by extreme gerrymandering, into a sane Blue island in a sea of Trumpism. And its lessons are relevant across the nation.

As political scientist Mike Males says about Oklahoma County:

‘The gerrymandered district combining once-Republican Oklahoma City with two reliably GOP rural counties, went for Donald Trump by 13 points in the 2016 presidential election. It handily elected Republicans to Congress since 1975, including two-term incumbent Steve Russell by margins topping 20 points.’ Fivethirtyeight.com gave Republicans 6-in-7 odds of 2018 triumph.

On the other hand, the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC) has a different view. Although it did not mention Diane Ravitch’s endorsement of Horn, Oklahoma rightwingers have been blaming Jewish billionaires like George Kaiser and Mike Bloomberg. In a recent meeting caught on youtube, scorn was expressed about the “Jerusalem news media,” prompting laughter.

Although they used questionable terminology, the conservative OCPAC started with a valid point. Oklahoma City has attracted large numbers of young professionals. The economic take-off (in a state that has mostly been stagnating,) has been a “magnet for liberals” from east and west coasts. According to one speaker, these “inplants” have prompted something that I have never seen, local television news’ nonstop celebration of pop culture, millennial opinions, and the “feelings” of young people.

Other newcomers, immigrants, were said to be “good neighbors and workers.” But they tell pollsters that they are “for the people” and that is “socialism.” So immigrants are “not bad people necessarily” but they “don’t make good citizens.”

However, OCPAC says that Oklahoma has been producing homegrown socialists. For years, teachers have been “indoctrinating children, making leftists of our children.” Their president said, “Government education is the bane of American civilization.” In 2018, Oklahoma almost saw a “total takeover of state government by the education industry – teachers.” Teachers supposedly registered Republican enmasse in a campaign to “take over” the party.

OCPAC also protests a “massive purge of conservatives” that is fed by dark money, but being implemented by local socialists. Not everyone at the meeting believed that teachers were leading this “massacre.” Former Rep. Mike Reynolds said that educators are just “useful idiots” for trial lawyers who hope to repeal tort reform as they then run the state. Reynolds said that he was expressing opinions, not proven facts, but he believes this assault on conservatives is a part of the efforts of billionaires still angry that the University of Oklahoma returned stolen Nazi art, purchased by a rich Jew. The return was supposedly opposed by Kaiser and an unnamed billionaire.

Given these threats, it was explained that Republicans “can’t leave Oklahoma County whole.” It was argued that 2022 redistricting must incorporate voters from three congressional districts. As in the good old days, Democratic voters in Oklahoma City need to be dumped into districts bordering on Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado!

On the other hand, Males’ analysis of Horn’s victory casts doubt on whether gerrymandering will be enough to defeat Horn, a likable, warm, and diplomatic candidate who walked her district. He explains that between 2014 and 2018, “voter turnout in the district surged by 23 percent for Republicans and a volcanic 110 percent for Democrats, with every precinct showing substantially increased Democratic voting.” He found that Russell won most of the city’s “40 rural White precincts, hard-core Trump territory,” but they became significantly more Democratic. He reports, “Of the 80,000 new voters, Democrats won two-thirds in rural areas, three-fourths in Oklahoma City, and 88 percent in the suburbs.”

Yes, Males shows that millennial districts voted Democratic by margins exceeding 75 percent but he also found that “gated, guarded Gaillardia, 15 miles from downtown, overwhelmingly White and wealthy, tripled its vote for Democrats, while the district’s two arch-red rural counties doubled their Democratic votes.”

I wonder what the defeated congressman Steve Russell thinks about the older population in Gaillardia who voted for the personable Democrat who enjoys listening. Throughout his campaign, Russell couldn’t hide his contempt for those who disagree with him. After the election, he blamed his loss on Millennials and then said about that generation, “time and experience will engage this important population with the values that matter as they marry and raise families. I am optimistic about the potential of our country’s future but saddened by its self-indulgence and lack of respect for one another.”

When asked by NPR’s Robin Young about Russell’s rude words, which she called “a bit of a ‘dis’,” Horn brushed off his animosity and said that we won because we engaged all types of people of all ages, “we changed the way campaigns are run here.”

https://www.thelostogle.com/2018/11/14/steve-russell-blames-campaign-loss-on-millennials/

http://www.wbur.org/npr/670077244/kendra-horn-oklahoma-5th-district

Categories Bigotry, Oklahoma, Republicans

Oklahoma: More Reasons to Vote for Kendra Horn for Congress

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2018 //
4

John Thompson, retired teacher in Oklahoma and frequent contributor to this and other blogs, writes about the Congressional race between Democrat Kendra Horn and Republican incumbent Steve Russell. As you will note, Russell is an extremist on the subject of guns. He opposes any kind of regulation of guns:

Diane, thank you for endorsing Kendra Horn for Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district. And thank you for exposing America’s “Fascist Underbelly,” while condemning the latest mass murder.

Horn’s opponent, Congressman Steve Russell, brags on his web site that he is “a career soldier, collector of military firearms and is the only one on Capitol Hill who is an active firearms manufacturer.” He opposes “knee-jerk” legislative reactions such as banning AR 15s, like the one Robert Bowers used when murdering 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue.

The Las Vegas mass murder of 59 people prompted Russell to say, “We must never allow some deceptive, fabricated movement on civil rights take away the Bill of Rights. The people of the United States are sovereign through its republican form of government–not the mob.”

Russell says that mass shootings are a “cultural thing.” The automatic weapons are “tools,” and we have an “inalienable and God-given right” to bear them. He also raised the specter of the U.S. becoming Australia and confiscating guns.

Russell’s campaign blamed Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters, after she was the apparent target of two bombs, for encouraging liberals to “intimidate and harass Republicans.”

During a recent debate with Kendra Horn, who supports such sensible gun control policies, Russell again opposed the banning of bump stocks or high-capacity magazines.

So, what will Russell, the gun maker, say about the latest hate crime?

When Russell isn’t condemning his opponent as a socialist or the Democrats as a mob, he claims that we must restore civility. When he isn’t blaming our nation for mishandling the Kavanaugh hearings, while denying that the Republicans mishandled them, and blaming Democrats for “fighting against” America, he says we must “turn away wrath.”

So, what will Congressman Russell do to deter the series of violent, wrathful actions that were last displayed this weekend?

Categories Guns, Oklahoma

I Endorse Kendra Horn for Election to Congress in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
October 26, 2018 //
0

The issues are clear in the contest between Republican Congressman Steve Russell and his Democratic challenger Kendra Horn in the Fifth District of Oklahoma: He is a Trump supporter; she will protect health care, education and Social Security. Mitch McConnell already made clear that last December’s tax cuts for the rich and corporations blew a huge hole in the deficit and the Republican party plans to make significant cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Democrats must gain control of the House to block cuts to our nation’s social safety net.

If you care about American public education, vote for Kendra Horn.

If you want to protect our citizens from policies that make the rich richer and everyone else suffer, please vote for Kendra Horn.

The future of our democracy is on the ballot. Please vote.

Categories Democracy, Oklahoma

John Thompson: The Negative Effects of Corporate Reform and Disinvestment in Education

By dianeravitch
October 21, 2018 //
12

John Thompson, historian and teacher, lives in Oklahoma.


The Oklahoma press is focusing on the state’s low level of college readiness as measured by the ACT test, 16 percent, in comparison to the national rate of 27 percent. The state known for dramatic cuts in education funding is ranked 19th in the nation with an average composite score of 19.3. But it is missing the big picture.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/college-readiness-rate-remains-level-in-oklahoma-s-second-year/article_f94e7779-4328-56b4-8b21-a1390a634d4b.html

The average ACT composite for my old school, Centennial, is 14.8, which is above average for the high-poverty neighborhood schools in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Even when we were ranked last in the state, our ACT scores were significantly higher. Since I retired, Centennial received a $5 million School Improvement Grant. I believe that its ACT decline is just one example of evidence explaining how and why tens of billions of dollars of corporate school reform drove meaningful learning out of many inner city schools.

The Latest ACT Scores for Public and Private High Schools

The important question is what caused the national decline. Retired PBS education reporter John Merrow argues these ACT-takers “have had 12 or 13 years of test-centric education, and the kids coming up behind them have also endured what the ‘school reformers’ designed.” He also asks, “How much more evidence do we need of the folly of ‘No Child Left Behind’ and Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s ‘Race to the Top’ before we take back our schools?”

As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap…..

Since reformers sought to improve low-performing schools, it is significant that Merrow cites the ACT report on recent outcomes:

A higher percentage of students this year than in recent years fell to the bottom of the preparedness scale, showing little or no readiness for college coursework. Thirty-five percent of 2018 graduates met none of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, up from 31% in 2014 and from 33% last year.

Click to access National-CCCR-2018.pdf

All types of researchers are contributing to the autopsies being performed on data-driven, competition-driven reform. And many of us are especially intrigued by the analyses of corporate school reformers on why test-driven accountability, the expansion of charter schools, and the quest to “build a better teacher” failed. The latest, by the Gates Foundation’s Tom Kane, is very illustrative. Kane acknowledges that media coverage has declared his “teacher quality” effort a failure, but he mostly blamed educators.

Develop and Validate — Then Scale

Kane is typical of many reformers who say the big mistake was rapidly scaling up their teacher evaluation and test-driven accountability models. Kane forgets, however, that he, Bill Gates, other venture philanthropists, and Arne Duncan were the ones who imposed the rapid scaling up of their untested hypotheses.

This leads to my hypothesis about the Tulsa Public Schools, which is led by corporate reformer Deborah Gist and a team of Broad Academy-trained administrators. It may offer a case study in the causes of the reform debacle. The TPS has the nation’s 7th lowest rate of student performance growth from 3rd to 8th grade.

Student growth: What’s the matter with Tulsa?

Tulsa has a lot of advantages due to the Kaiser Foundation’s science-based early education efforts, and it used to have better student outcomes than the OKCPS. Tulsa has received millions of dollars in funding for it value-added teacher evaluations, “personalized” learning, and other corporate reforms. The cornerstone of their approach was the termination and “counseling out” of experienced educators, and demanding compliance to their new model.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/tulsa-public-schools-teacher-evaluation-system-is-changing-culture-has/article_6be79be3-d934-5d4a-98ef-5ec90bcea9e9.html

Of course, no single piece of data can prove that Tulsa’s experiments failed for any single reason, but a new database created by ProPublica and Chalkbeat provides valuable new information. Their research shows that many of the biggest experiments, costing hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars and that were once proclaimed as successes, actually increased the achievement gap. Despite false claims to the contrary, many districts that committed to corporate reforms, and often claimed that they improved student performance, actually practiced mass suspensions of poor, black students. And there seems to be an unmistakable correlation between their commitment to teacher quality experiments and the increase of inexperienced teachers.

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/10/16/chalkbeat-propublica-collaboration-education-inequity-data-miseducation/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/newark/2018/10/16/in-newark-reporting-lapses-hide-thousands-of-student-suspensions-from-public-view/

So, how much of the decline in Oklahoma ACT scores is attributable to the top-down reforms funded by the federal government, Bill Gates, and other edu-philanthropists?

It doesn’t rise to the level of “proof,” but it is noteworthy that black TPS students are 2.2 years behind their white peers. That is .5 a year worse than the OKCPS gap. (And only 18 percent of TPS students took those college readiness tests, in contrast to the OKCPS where 29 percent took the ACT or SAT.)

https://projects.propublica.org/miseducation/district/4030240

Nearly a quarter of OKCPS teachers are categorized as inexperienced. The same percentage applies to Centennial, and whenever I visit my old school I hear more concerns about the ways that teacher turnover undermines school improvement.

Nearly 1/3rd of Tulsa teachers are inexperienced.

As more data arrives, we will be able to evaluate whether the multi-million Tulsa/Gates Foundation teacher quality initiative drove down the quality of teaching and learning. But this much is obvious. It is easier for competition-driven reformers to suspend poor students than it is for them to increase student learning.

And the “exiting” of large numbers of veteran educators was seen as a feature, as opposed to a flaw in their model. Now we know it is much easier to drive teachers out of the profession than it is to social-engineer better teachers.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reform, Funding, Oklahoma, Testing

John Thompson: Will Education Be the Issue That Sinks Oklahoma’s Republican Gubernatorial Candidate?

By dianeravitch
October 13, 2018 //
2

In recent years, Oklahoma has been a reliably Republican State, but this year may be different because of the state’s teacher uprising.

John Thompson writes here about the way that teachers and parents who want the state to invest in education are upending the Governor’s race.

He writes:

“In Oklahoma, the governor’s race would ordinarily result in a solid victory for an enthusiastic Trump supporter like Republican Kevin Stitt, who brandishes a “100 percent Pro-Life score” and an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association.

“But this year’s focus on education could turn the election for Stitt’s competitor, veteran Democrat Drew Edmondson, who trails by only four points, according to a recent poll.

“This year’s focus on education could turn the election for Democrat Drew Edmondson.
At a recent forum, Stitt has evaded the question of how he would fund a teacher pay raise without raising taxes. Edmondson, in contrast, committed to a $300 to $350 million annual increase for education, funded by taxes on oil and gas production, removing a capital gains exemption for high-income taxpayers, and a 50-cent tax hike on cigarettes.

“Asked about this difference in strategy, Edmondson’s campaign manager Michael Clingman said in an email, “the lack of specificity in Kevin Stitt’s messages is troubling. Teachers marched on the Oklahoma Capitol last April demanding real solutions, not vague promises….”

“Stitt is basing much of his campaign on running government like a publicly-traded company—setting performance metrics for state governance and holding subordinates accountable for measurable outputs. Drawing from his experience as the founder and CEO of Gateway Mortgage Group, Stitt describes his program as “performance metrics=accountability, efficiency and results.” He promises to fire underperformers.

“But some of the “performance metrics” from his own company don’t look so good, as revealed in an ongoing legal controversy over questionable mortgage lending practices. His company originated subprime mortgages to homebuyers who may not have qualified for traditional loans (a hearing on the Lehman Brothers suit against Gateway is set for October 29 in the Southern District of the New York Bankruptcy Court.)

“Gateway has been called one of “the 15 shadiest mortgage lenders being backed by the government.” It paid fines in three states and was penalized in five for using unlicensed lenders. Gateway lost its license and signed a consent order barring it from seeking another lender or broker license in Georgia.

“Oklahoma educators have had enough of outsiders imposing their untested opinions on classrooms. Since the walkouts this spring, over 100 current or former teachers and family members of teachers have run for local, state, and federal office in Oklahoma. Only four of the nineteen Republicans who voted against raising taxes to increase teacher pay remain in the running. Edmondson is benefiting from the energy generated by women such as congressional candidate Kendra Horn, and a record number of high-profile female teacher-candidates.

“Stitt was a no show for a recent candidate forum, where education issues were discussed. In contrast, Edmondson attended every day of the nine-day teacher walkout this April.”

Will teachers and parents “Remember in November?”

Categories Oklahoma, Politics, Support for public schools, Teachers

John Thompson: Elizabeth Warren in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2018 //
25

John Thompson, historian and teacher (ret.) in Oklahoma, recently attended a rally where Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke.

He reports:

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren returned home to Oklahoma City and inspired a standing-room only crowd to “Remember in November.” Sen. Warren spoke in the high school cafeteria where she used to serve detention. She’d attended middle school next door and been married at the age of 19 in a church a couple of blocks away. But that’s another story …

Warren and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten shared the stage with teachers who are running for office. Warren said, “Teachers … are staging walkouts, occupying statehouses, making their voices heard and they are winning. And right here in Oklahoma they are winning big.”

The Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest also praised Oklahoma’s Teacher Caucus, the nation’s largest, with 56 of the 157 teachers who are running for office across the country this year. Twelve anti-education legislators have already been defeated.

The reasons for the revolt were apparent in the cafeteria. As the Oklahoman reported, part of the room was blocked off where “a couple of buckets collected water from leaking pipes” and “a few blocks away from the high school, a sign in front of Sequoyah Elementary asked motorists to consider donating paper and pencils.”

https://newsok.com/article/5609281/sen.-warren-returns-to-okc-urges-teachers-to-vote

To see photos of Saturday’s rally, click below:

https://newsok.com/gallery/6039025/aft-teacher-rally

Warren had local family members in attendance and she shared childhood stories about the challenges and the ways schools opened the door to the daughter of a maintenance man. She said that Oklahoma schools can prepare kids for almost anything – even becoming a twitter partner with the President!

Most of her family were great singers in the church choir. Because she lacked that talent, the choir director kept telling her to keep her voice down, “Betsy, just a little softer …”

And still, “She Persisted!”

Warren was inspired by a 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Lee:

She said if I worked very hard, I could become a teacher. And the hook was sunk. She had me: a teacher. Her words changed my life. Now, no one in my family had ever graduated college. (…) But when Ms. Lee said, ‘Yes, Ms. Betsy, you can become a teacher,’ I never saw my life the same way.

Elizabeth Warren asks Oklahoma teachers ‘to fight’

Warren began as a classroom teacher instructing special needs children. She also took over a 5th grade Sunday school class which had driven off a series of teachers, leaving the minister desperate. Warren changed the class culture, where little boys would climb out of the windows, by employing the Socratic Method. When discussing the difference between “obligation” as opposed to “charity,” one boy said they were obliged to not put boogers in their brother’s food. The class agreed with another child who said we have an obligation to see that, “Everyone gets a turn.”

Warren tackled the dualities under-laying every other speech and the audience’s concerns when she said, “Teachers are in the opportunity business.” Our people have often found ways to stand up to “concentrated power,” but “that America is slipping away.”

As the futures of our families are undermined by corporate greed, teachers have increasingly been “ground up and spit out.” But neither is that new. As Randi Weingarten recalled, she had been a Wall Street lawyer before teaching in the New York City schools. Even in the 1990s, Weingarten couldn’t believe how teachers had been treated in such an “infantilized” manner. Since then, educators have been dismissed and disparaged even more, while often dealing with “classrooms with 50 kids, 40 desks, and 30 chairs.”

The same themes were further explained by Rep. Mickey Dollens and state senate candidate Carri Hicks. Dollens was an inner city teacher who was laid off due to budget cuts. Hicks recalled the suffering of her 5-year-old student, shot by a stray bullet while sitting in her living room. Hicks said of the teacher revolt, “what we really demand is respect.” And we demand respect not just for ourselves but for students and their families.

Hicks noted that at a time when Oklahoma should be enjoying widespread prosperity, one of our counties, Stillwell, was just identified as having the lowest life expectancy in the nation, (with two others having life expectancies below 60 years, placing them in the nation’s bottom ten.) Hicks explained, “What most people don’t understand about teaching is we don’t just teach a subject or a classroom, we are the front line of defense for every one of our students in our classrooms.”

https://newsok.com/article/5609079/life-is-short-in-some-oklahoma-communities?earlyAccess=true

My wife said she had never seen anything as inspiring as the rally. She’d never seen anyone speak as powerfully as Elizabeth Warren, or do so in such a genuine, sincere, and warm manner.

I agree. Being a former teacher, I was also struck by the unity demonstrated by educators who had long tried to keep their heads down, shut their doors, and do their own jobs as best as they could. I saw what AFT/OK support staff President David Gray described. Gray said that teachers have fought back against the “testing fixation,” and the “culture of blaming teachers.” We are now resisting Betsy DeVos and the Janus anti-union decision. We have reasons for confidence, but as my good friend Mickey Dollens says, “We’re 45 days away, it is imperative that we continue to push forward and see it through.”

I was also struck by the number of local teacher candidates in the room who I’d never met. I’ve been collecting numerous stories of teacher/candidates, and the rally let me hear plenty more.

Elizabeth Warren began the afternoon by privately offering advice to numerous candidates. She concluded her call for justice with the words:

“This government fails our children, fails our teachers and fails our futures. But mark my words: tick-tock, tick-tock. Come November 6 we are going to make some big changes in this country.”

Categories Education Reform, Oklahoma, Politics, Teachers

Do You Live in Tulsa? “Backpack” Is Coming to You!

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
5

Lucky you!

TulsaKids magazine is hosting a screening and panel discussion of Backpack Full of Cash on September 20th followed by a week long run of the film at the Circle Theater there.

Here’s TulsaKids Magazine blurb about the event and the link to their page http://www.tulsakids.com/Web-2018/Backpack-Full-of-Cash-Screening-and-Panel-Discussion/

When: Thursday, Sept. 7, 7-9:30 p.m.

Where: Circle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave.

What and Why:

With the expansion of charter schools in Tulsa and around the state, parents and others interested in public education have questions. What is a charter school? How are charter schools funded? Who controls charter schools? Last spring, Oklahoma teachers walked out to call attention to, not only low pay, but lack of resources in the schools. Are charter schools helping or hurting already strained resources?

To help you learn more, TulsaKids Media is sponsoring a screening of the documentary “Backpack Full of Cash” followed by a panel discussion on Thurs., Sept. 20, 7 p.m., at Circle Cinema.

Panelists include: Dr. John Cox, public school superintendent and candidate for Oklahoma State Superintendent; Eric Doss, director of quality charter services, Oklahoma Public School Resource Center (former administrator for Tulsa School of Arts & Sciences); Jennettie Marshall, Tulsa Public Schools Board member; Rob Miller, superintendent of Bixby Public Schools, Oklahoma Assistant Superintendent of the Year; Darryl Bright, Citizens United for a Better Education System.

Come join this important community dialogue.

Remember: Students and Teachers always get a discount at Circle Cinema! Tickets are $9.50 for adults, and $7.50 for students, teachers, military and seniors.

Learn more about the film at http://www.backpackfullofcash.com., and purchase tickets at http://www.circlecinema.com.

Categories Education Reform, Media, Oklahoma, Resistance

Oklahoma: Teachers Just Purged Their Enemies Out of the Legislature

By dianeravitch
September 3, 2018 //
12

Eric Levitz wrote a great article in New York magazine about the electoral victories of educators and parents in Oklahoma. They kicked the bums out! Open the article for lots of great links.

“For nearly a decade, Republican officials have been treating ordinary Oklahomans like the colonial subjects of an extractive empire. On Governor Mary Fallin’s watch, fracking companies have turned the Sooner State into the earthquake capital of the world; (literally) dictated policy to her attorney general; and strong-armed legislators into giving them a $470 million tax break — in a year when Oklahoma faced a $1.3 billion budget shortfall.

“To protect Harold Hamm’s god-given right to pay infinitesimal tax rates on his gas profits (while externalizing the environmental costs of fracking onto Oklahoma taxpayers), tea party Republicans raided the state’s rainy-day funds, and strip-mined its public-school system.

“Between 2008 and 2015, Oklahoma’s slashed its per-student education spending by 23.6 percent, more than any other state in the country. Some rural school districts were forced to adopt four-day weeks; others struggled to find competent teachers, as the GOP’s refusal to pay competitive salaries chased talented educators across the border into Texas. Students who were lucky enough to have both five-day weeks and qualified instructors still had to tolerate decaying textbooks. Polls showed overwhelming public support for raising taxes on the wealthy and oil companies to increase investment in education. GOP lawmakers showed no interest in those polls.

“And, for a while there, it really looked like they didn’t have to.

“Mary Fallin rode a wave of fracking dollars to reelection in 2014, while her GOP allies retained large majorities in both chambers of the legislature. With no organized opposition to counter the deep pockets of extractive industry, Republican officials could reasonably conclude that working-class Sooners had no material interests that their party was bound to respect.

“But then, Oklahoma teachers decided to give their state a civics lesson. Inspired by their counterparts in West Virginia, Oklahoma teachers went on strike to demand long-overdue raises for themselves, more education funding for their students, and much higher taxes on the wealthy and energy companies — to ensure that those first two demands would be honored indefinitely.

“They won one out of three. Despite the fact the teachers had no legal right to strike — and that the Oklahoma state legislature requires a three-fourths majority to pass tax increases of any kind — the teachers galvanized enough public support to force Fallin to give an inch. As energy billionaire (and GOP mega-donor) Harold Hamm glowered from the gallery, Oklahoma state lawmakers passed a tiny increase in the tax on fracking production (one small enough to leave Oklahoma with the lowest such tax rate in the nation), so as to fund $6,100 raises for the state’s teachers.

“The strikers were pleased, but unappeased. They promised to make lawmakers pay for refusing to finance broader investments in education with larger tax hikes. “We got here by electing the wrong people to office,” Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, told the New York Times in April. “We have the opportunity to make our voices heard at the ballot box.” Hamm and his fellow gas giants (almost certainly) made an equal and opposite vow — that those few Republicans who held the line against tax hikes of any kind would not regret their bravery…

“Oklahoma’s GOP primary season came to an end — and the teachers beat the billionaires in a rout. Nineteen Republicans voted against raising taxes to increase teacher pay last spring; only four will be on the ballot this November…

“Last spring, state representative Jeff Coody told students in his districts that their teachers’ demands were “akin to extortion.” On Tuesday night, GOP voters returned Coody to the private sector. His colleague, Bobby Cleveland — who scolded teachers for whining at the Capitol instead of teaching in their classrooms — will now be taking a hiatus from politics. In May 2017, State Representative Tess Teague mocked the ignorance of protesters who were demanding tax hikes on fracking companies — in a Snapchat video that made heavy use of animal filters.” she’s back in the private sector too.

Thank you, Oklahoma Teachers!

Categories Oklahoma, Resistance, Teachers

Oklahoma: Teachers Rise Up and Run for Office: Now is the Time for Unity

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2018 //
6

John Thompson writes in “The Progressive” about the aftermath of last spring’s teacher uprising in Oklahoma.

Read it all.

“Teachers who walked off the job this spring protesting poor salaries and inadequate school funding in multiple states are winning in the court of popular appeal. According to a new survey: “In the six states where there were wide-scale teacher strikes and walkouts—West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Colorado—63 percent of respondents favored raising teacher pay. Public support in those states jumped by 16 percentage points since last year.”

“The strong sentiments expressed by those in the teacher walkout states carried over to support for teacher pay raises from survey respondents across the country, with nearly half of those provided with information on average teacher salaries in their state saying pay should increase. Support for higher teacher pay increased from a year ago among both Democrats and Republicans.

“In Oklahoma, the teacher revolt prompted 112 current or former teachers and family members of teachers to run for local, state, and federal office. More than seventy of those advanced in primary elections.

“But since the walkout and the primaries, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v AFSCME decision essentially imposed “right to work” on teachers across the nation, and anti-union “reform” groups and politically conservative organizations have followed up with campaigns encouraging teachers to leave their unions.

“Also, with a new school year starting, local teachers unions find themselves back in a familiar, but uncomfortable situation of having to collaborate with school systems and government leaders in the now super-charged political environment created by the walkouts.

“Teachers have a good shot at continuing to build popular support and even at winning at the ballot box this November, but they need to stay unified in the face of new challenges to their unions. Key to this is confronting an emerging divide over whether their movement is being led from the top down or the bottom up.”

Categories Oklahoma, Politics, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Jan Resseger: Teachers Are Leading the Fight for Funding in Red States

By dianeravitch
July 14, 2018 //
19

Jan Resseger reports here on the role of teachers in Oklahoma and Arizona in leading the fight against tax-cutting Tea Party ideologues whose cruel zeal is hurting children and denying them a decent education.

She begins by citing an article in “The Nation” about Oklahoma, where taxes had not gone up since 1990 until the teacher protests this spring:

“Covert [the author of the article] introduces us to Scott Helton, a high school English teacher whose school opted to save money with online textbooks instead of buying the printed copies. But the school hasn’t enough computers and its Wi-Fi is inadequate. He has been forced to spend his own money to provide readings for his students. Ten years ago, his classes averaged 20 students; today they are packed with 35, and in once case 40 students, many of whom sit on the floor. We also learn about underpaid workers in other government agencies including Gail DeLashaw, a family-support worker in the Department of Human Services, whose salary is $30,000, 60 percent of the national average for someone like DeLashaw with an advanced degree. Her case load—once 500 or 600—has risen to 1,200 families.”

In Arizona, teachers and parents gathered 270,000 signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to raise taxes for education. Gov. Doug Ducey and his allies, of course, will fight it. Ducey is up for re-election. Democrats will choose his opponent in a primary next month. The leading contender on the Democratic ballot is David Garcia, a strong fighter for funding education. Garcia is a professor of education at Arizona State University. Polls show him tied with Ducey, or even ahead of him.

Categories Arizona, Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Oklahoma
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