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Tulsa-area leaders and education officials banded together Tuesday to put pressure on elected state officials to ease cuts on public schools.
ImpactTulsa, a group that seeks better education for Tulsa-area students, painted a dramatic picture of proposed education cuts that could result in a loss of 667 positions from 15 school districts in the ImpactTulsa partnership.
Mark Graham, Tulsa Area United Way president, said with only about three weeks left in the state’s legislative session, the time is now to “demand solutions.”
“The cycle can either be virtuous or it can be vicious,” Graham said. “We either invest today or we are going to pay tomorrow.”
The group estimates the loss in wages in the Tulsa area from education cuts could amount to $33.35 million from 667 cut positions, consisting of 330 teachers and 337 support, administrative and other positions.
Tulsa’s school board on Monday approved a staffing plan that will cut 142 Tulsa Public Schools teaching jobs and 270 total positions to reduce the district’s budget by about $8 million next year.
The cuts are the latest in a series of measures the TPS board has approved to help the district reduce costs in the face of a state revenue failure. The 2017 fiscal year budget for TPS will have to be cut by about $13.5 million, district officials estimate, though it could go as high as $20 million.
“It seems unconscionable that at a time when Oklahoma ranks near the bottom in literally every state in education funding that we would allow this current budget shortfall to set us back even further,” Graham said.
He said the burden often falls on local nonprofits to help make up for financial challenges in schools.
Other officials said the ripple effect goes further down the line, affecting Tulsa’s workforce and quality of life.
Mike Neal, president of the Tulsa Regional Chamber, called education cuts a “lose-lose” scenario for Oklahoma.
“This is simply crippling Oklahoma’s ability to educate the next generation of talented workers,” he said.
Neal said education funding is core to the quality-of-life issue in Tulsa.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett echoed the concerns of the other speakers.
“We’re talking about a problem that is both short term and long term,” he said. “It’s getting now to the question of whether you want to have a reasonably educated group of our offspring that will stay, hopefully, in this region of Oklahoma.”
Asked what specific efforts Tulsa officials will undertake between now and the end of the legislative session late this month, Bartlett advocated for tax reform on exemptions and Internet sales.
“If all of those (tax exemptions) were taken away, hundreds of millions would literally flow into the coffers of the Oklahoma Tax Commission,” Bartlett said. “Why not have the discussion?”
Bartlett said “something extraordinary” needs to happen.
“It will take courage,” he said. “It will take a significant amount of political courage for them to do what’s necessary. It will be our responsibility to provide them with political cover when they do undertake the responsibility of making some very, very serious decisions.”
