A controversial voucher bill narrowly defeated in the Oklahoma State Senate earlier this week dominated discussion at Friday’s annual meeting between Tulsa Public Schools leaders and area lawmakers.
The public forum had to be rescheduled twice because of winter weather in recent months, so its occurrence midlegislative session was rare, if not unprecedented, and coincidentally came in the aftermath of 2022’s most high-profile common education bill.
Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist told lawmakers she herself helped found a school of choice in another city earlier in her career and Oklahoma’s largest school district, which she oversees, has six charter school partners, as well as a host of language immersion, Montessori and magnet school options for parents, and a virtual school currently enrolling 800 students.
“In Tulsa, we have school choice. We have lots of choice,” said Gist, who noted Friday’s event was being held in one of the city’s numerous programs of choice for high school students — the studio of Webster High School’s Television, Film & Digital Media Program.
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“We know when you look at state assessment data, in particular, that students are not achieving at the level we want them to.
“What doesn’t make sense is to say because of that, we want them to leave the system where we won’t know how they’re doing at all,” she said. “If you are of that mindset — the system you need to have in place is one that has adequate funding in place in the first place, which Oklahoma does not have.”
Senate Bill 1647 would direct state funds into “Oklahoma Empowerment Accounts” for families with school-age children to use toward private school tuition, books, computers, uniforms, tutoring or home school expenses or extracurricular activities.
Sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, and championed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, the measure failed in a late-night Wednesday vote of 22 to 24, shy of the 25 votes necessary to pass the Senate.
Ahead of the vote, Treat amended the bill to put in $128.5 million to offset the cost of the measure, saying he didn’t think it would cost that much.
But critics insisted the measure would result in a reduction of funding for public schools, while doing nothing to increase school choice in rural areas of the state where private schools may not be accessible.
While advocates said a parent’s choice of school was accountability enough, a bipartisan group of senators who voted no questioned the lack of accountability for taxpayer dollars sent to private schools when public schools are subject to a tremendous amount of accountability measures imposed by lawmakers.
House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, had said he would not hear the bill in that chamber.
So what would TPS leaders rather lawmakers be focused on?
Gist said: School staffing shortages and national and local decreases in the pipeline of new teachers; mental health and wellness for students and their families; fiscal stability for school districts; and “realistic” long-term pandemic recovery.
But she also made a point of saying funding alone will not solve school districts’ problems, throwing in the state’s red tape while she was at it, saying, “I have done this work in six states, and I have never seen the bureaucratic stranglehold on schools as we have in Oklahoma.”
Rep. Monroe Nichols, D-Tulsa, asked, “How could we advocate for targeted resources?”
Gist responded by saying the added “weights” for students of color and students with special education needs within the state funding formula have not been updated in 30 years.
Other lawmakers in attendance were Sen. Jo Anna Dossett, D-Tulsa, Sen. J.J. Dossett, D-Owasso, Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, Sen. Joe Newhouse, R-Tulsa, and Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa.
TPS board members Jennettie Marshall and Suzanne Schreiber said focus is needed on the needs of traditional public schools, which serve the vast majority of Oklahoma school children.
Marshall said the state’s lack of investment has caused an exodus of traditionally certified teachers.
“Funding is fundamental. Public education is fundamental. At this point in time, we absolutely have to stop looking at ‘charter is better than public,’” Marshall said. “If we fund public education, our teachers can meet the needs of our students. When we look at performance — they are performing basically at the same level.”
Gist noted that when people ask her if charter schools are better than traditional public schools, she answers: “Are cafés better than restaurants? The answer is it depends.
“Some charter schools are not performing very well. Tulsa Honor Academy has incredible academic results and that’s something all of us should be paying attention to. But there are others that are struggling academically.”
Member John Croisant said despite political rhetoric, the Tulsa school board is focusing on student outcomes, especially in early literacy and college and career readiness.
“If you guys are looking like we are — focus on what we can do for kids instead of focusing on what adults are doing,” he said.
Video: Tulsa World Newsroom: How does a book end up at your kid’s school library?
With all the talk of banned books, Tulsa World Staff Writer Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, who covers education, checked with local school librarians to see what the process is like. She talks with Tulsa World Editor Jason Collington about what she found out and other hot topics when it comes to education in Oklahoma.
