Oklahoma $235 million budget cut directly affects students, teachers

by Sara Ritsch
Staff Writer

(Oklahoma City, OK) – Thursday, March 3, the Oklahoma State Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger ordered another $235 million budget cut, slashing 7 percent of spending for schools, prisons and other state agencies for the rest of the year.

"Public education will receive the largest additional cut of $62.4 million, bringing the total since the start of the year to $109.2 million. With growing classroom sizes, abysmal teacher pay, and the elimination of programs and school days, how much more can Oklahoma's teachers and students endure before Oklahoma says enough?" asks the Oklahoma Democratic Party.

Our roads are dilapidated, our mentally ill are untreated and our children are uneducated. These are some of the effects of Oklahoma’s recent budget cuts to public funding.

A statement released by Oklahoma City Public School Superintendent Rob Neu reads, "Today’s news is devastating for students and education in general. This round of revenue failure will have an additional budgetary impact of $2-million for the Oklahoma City Public School District. We will continue to deplete our fund balance this fiscal year since those funds have been budgeted and spent. 

"OKCPS will put forward our best efforts to make strategic reductions, and do everything we can to financially protect our classrooms as we prepare for next school year. But these cuts only deepen the reductions we will need to make in the 2016-17 school year. 

"I am urging legislators to drop everything and focus on fixing the structural issues related to the budget, and the cyclical impact that the volatile oil and gas industry has on the state’s budget. Let’s not act surprised next time, this has got to be fixed.”

Nicole Morgan, an Oklahoma City 5th grade Social Studies teacher, is one of the young professionals who is directly impacted by this additional budget cut.

In January, The Gayly interviewed her regarding the initial $47 million cut to Oklahoma’s education budget. “Our school informed us that we will no longer be receiving half of our funding for copy paper and printer ink, among other things.

“This limits us to 2,500 copies for the rest of the school year. Once we run out, that’ll be yet another expense coming from our personal finances. I’ve currently spent about $400 of my own money on classroom supplies that my students’ families cannot afford.”

Today, March 3, Morgan is in a dire financial position. On Saturday, February 27, she said, “I found out yesterday that because of budget cuts they aren’t hiring back their last three hires, which includes me.”

Morgan is now finishing up her first year as a teacher with an expensive education on her back and no foreseeable future teaching in Oklahoma. Her $24-thousand-dollar student debt is at a standstill with her own lack of funds. Morgan’s projected amount of personal spending as of today is $800 for pencil sharpeners, notebooks, markers, lesson aids and more. She is now considering relocating to Texas so she can actually pursue a teaching career.

Substitute teacher Jennifer Hudgens feels the same way. Hudgens told The Gayly, “I want to teach. I want to teach in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the level of pay, lack of benefits, and lack of funding that actually goes to teachers and schools is fairly non-existent.” In that way, her goal now seems impractical.

With such a low budget, Morgan’s school is taking more risks. For the children, losing a teacher will impact their ability to learn. “Them saying they can’t hire me back instantly leaves my school with three teachers for more than 100 kids,” Morgan says regarding her 5th graders. “We also get paid for kids to be at school, so we don’t suspend anyone. We put up with non-compliant students to keep that money.”

A direct effect of the futile education in Oklahoma can be seen by Hudgens in her college classes. “Some of the students I’ve run into while attending UCO are undereducated about simple things – some bordering on illiterate. I don’t understand how they got past the standardized tests.”

Oklahoma is currently 48th in the nation’s education quality rankings, 46th in the nation for teacher pay, but fifth for administrator pay. So far, the plans to give teachers a $3 thousand pay raise by next year is only to help them pay for their own insurance – it’s coming out of their healthcare plans.

But, the 60 percent pay raise that Morgan faces in Texas schools is much more appealing than a raise with a catch. And many other teachers are feeling this same dilemma, and they are looking outside of Oklahoma for their own solutions.

But our kids aren’t going anywhere.

The Gayly – 3/3/2016 @ 1:45 p.m. CST