Area lawmakers say public education funding is still chief among the concerns of many constituents ahead of the upcoming legislative session.
At a Friday forum hosted by Jenks Public Schools, state Sen. Joe Newhouse, R-Broken Arrow, and state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said the most common question they’ve been receiving from parents and educators is what can be done to raise funding to reduce class sizes driven up by a decade of state funding reductions and growing student enrollment.
As Newhouse sees it, the answer isn’t necessarily raising taxes.
“A part of it is collecting on taxes that are already owed,” he said. “Actually, Oklahoma County and Tulsa County do a pretty good job with our tax assessments and property values. But in a lot of other counties, there is a good ol’ boy system in place where people are not properly assessing the taxes that are owed, … and the whole state funding formula suffers.”
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Sand Springs’ Sen. Allison Ikley-Freeman and Tulsa’s Rep. Denise Brewer, both Democrats, mentioned their desire to review corporate tax breaks enacted over the last 10 to 20 years to drive up state revenues.
“How can we raise funding for education without raising taxes? For those of us in this room, we’re paying our fair share. The tax breaks that we’ve had since Gov. Keating have cost this state billions of dollars,” Ikley-Freeman said. “It’s really going back and looking at who isn’t paying their fair share — because it isn’t the everyday, regular person.”
Ten legislators, including a host of freshmen, appeared at Friday’s forum at Jenks’ Dr. Kirby A. Lehman Center for the Study of Science and Mathematics.
Superintendent Stacey Butterfield thanked all legislators from last session for passing a statewide, $5,000 teacher raise, drawing a loud round of applause from the couple hundred educators, parents, business leaders and other concerned community members in attendance.
One question from the audience was how lawmakers intend to help Gov.-elect Kevin Stitt achieve his goal of raising Oklahoma from low national rankings to top 10s in public education categories.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s have a top-10 system,’ but we need to have a plan with outcome-based legislation directed to achieve that plan,” said former Jenks Mayor Lonnie Sims, who now represents House District 68 as a Republican.
Brewer raised the perennial topic of school district consolidation, suggesting that a nonpartisan commission review of the matter could help spur action.
“There will be places where we need to go down to the concrete pad and start over because things have gotten that bad — and it’s a shame because they are responsible for our kids’ success,” Brewer said.
Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, who has served since 2016, pointed out that all of the lawmakers assembled at Friday’s forum represent urban areas, where the idea of consolidation isn’t taboo.
“There are Rs and Ds at this table, but what we have in common is we’re all urban legislators. It’s not an R and D issue, it’s an R and U issue,” Rader said. “Whenever it’s brought up, the rural legislators won’t hear it. In the Legislature, you’ll hear, ‘It won’t save that much money.’ And only in the Legislature will you hear ‘It’s only $40 or $50 million,’” prompting a roar of laughter from the audience.
