They came to speak with lawmakers over coffee and pie about education priorities for this year’s legislative session.
“We just wanted to make sure to raise awareness of public schools and how proud we are of all the work that all of our teachers and educators and support staff do within the entire state of Oklahoma,” Lucas said. “And also talk to some legislators, let them know our concerns about what’s happening inside our buildings [and] make sure that we’re advocating for all of our kids.”
The event, organized by OKPLAC, is part of National Public Schools Week.
Earlier that morning, parents, educators and advocates rallied at the Capitol rotunda to support Oklahoma public schools and listen to remarks from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. Drummond told the crowd he would “always be your defender,” and is “forever a public school advocate.”
Around lunchtime, school supporters gathered around about a dozen tables to discuss legislation, wish lists and criticisms for the current state of public education.
Betty Collins, who teaches 8th grade history at Union Public Schools, said she is concerned an administrative rule recently approved by the State Board of Education violates the principle of separating church and state.
The rule would require the State Board of Education to use a Declaration of Foundational Values as a guiding light for making board decisions. It includes statements such as “truth, goodness and beauty are objective moral values… whose ultimate author is our Creator,” the responsibility for children’s education is on parents “to whom their children were given by their Creator,” and “good and evil are real and universal rather than relativistic concepts.”
“I teach the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and our founding fathers were adamant in the separation of church and state,” Collins said. “And I think that we are doing students a disservice in Oklahoma to be teaching them one thing in the classroom, but then showing them something completely different when it comes to their actual legislators. So I think that’s frustrating.”
Brian Berg teaches special education at Union High School. He said lawmakers should focus on getting more special education teachers into Oklahoma’s classrooms.
“We just feel that students are going to be better served when they can have that one-on-one relationship with a teacher who can advocate for their individual needs inside of the classroom,” Berg said. “And when we are required to work with 20, 30, 40-plus students, it makes it more challenging to offer that same time and patience and care to every student that we could when we were fully staffed.”
He said programs such as State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ recent sign-on bonus initiative, which awarded bonuses of up to $50,000 for returning teachers, aren’t helpful for the educators who have faithfully stayed in Oklahoma schools. Instead, he supports measures like House Bill 3454, which would give children of veteran teachers access to the state’s tuition scholarship program.
“You put in all of your effort for other people’s kids… Well, by the time your kids get to that point, let’s support them in seeking their own educational goals,” Berg said. “That is something that actually helps youth, helps educators, it helps Oklahomans on a larger scale than a $50,000 sign-on bonus for one individual.”
Public school advocates congregated around Sen. Adam Pugh (R-Edmond), who chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Rep. Mark McBride (R-Moore), who chairs the House Appropriations and Budget on Education Committee.
Pugh spoke to the group about a lack of professionalism in discourse at the Capitol — an issue he alluded to during a recent committee meeting before abruptly pulling a controversial bill on school accreditation authority.
“When we disagree, any one vote is a finite moment. And it may be important to you [opposing lawmakers], I get it, and we can passionately disagree on issues, but we’ve got to model how we work for you [constituents],” Pugh said. “I just am so concerned with what [is] being modeled right now — to young people in particular — whose first intuition now is just to tune it out, right? I mean, totally disengaged, because they’re just frustrated. They don’t like it. They don’t like the way adults are trying to solve problems or not solve problems, and that’s frustrating.”
With a big legislative deadline this week, lawmakers are running out of time to introduce new bills, but they can add to or rewrite bills that are still alive and working through the legislative process.
