Wednesday, May 7, 2008; Posted 3.18 pm (CDT)
Lawmakers make a point to say education is their number one concern, but educators definitely don't feel that.
"Their priority is not education," says Roy Bishop, President of Oklahoma Education Association. "Someone has got to speak up for the children of Oklahoma."
Lawmakers are considering an estimated bond of about $500 million, with none of that going toward education.
"We don't have enough money to pay for services," says Bishop. "We're at a standstill budget, and a bond issue would essentially mortgage the future growth revenue of the state of Oklahoma."
A bond for the state means paying it off for the next several years, most likely from the general revenue fund.
"I think this year we have to be very careful that we don't put out state with some big bond payments in the future,"says Senate Appropriations Co-Chair Mike Johnson, R-Kingfisher.
With the state still paying past bonds of about $1.5 billion and education receiving about 35 percent of its funding from general revenue, educators fear that kind of impact.
"It's be huge," says Bishop. "We've already got teachers that are going through big trash days looking for things for their classrooms, so they're already feeling the effects of the tax cuts. This will just make it worse."
"It means that in future years if we continue to see flat revenue or even a cut, the cuts will be even deeper," says United Suburban Schools Association Executive Director Mark Bledsoe. "[It means] more teachers laid off, larger class sizes, less activities for the students."
With roads and bridges being neglected for so many years, though, some lawmakers feel this would help the state play catchup, but educators hope they go about it another way.
"If there are emergency needs, that they look at the rainy day [fund], which is approaching $600 million to pay for those emergency needs.
"We really haven't had a rainy day yet," says Johnson.
Educators say the state's solution shouldn't be at the expense of education.
The bond could include paying for an eight-year transportation program, endowed chair backlog and flood control infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt. The state treasurer says that the bond wouldn't affect educational funding because those projects are already state commitments.
