OKLAHOMA CITY — The possibility of a stalemate loomed large over much of the fourth day of the statewide teacher walkout, as the question on everyone’s lips in the Capitol was what could be done to end the walkout once and for all.
At least one protestor tried to make it clear Thursday that it is not a question for teachers to answer.
“When will this end? Ask legislators,” read the poster board sign carried by Morgan Brown, a senior University of Central Oklahoma education major who is about to begin student teaching at Westmoore High School in Moore.
“We’ve set our standards very clearly,” Brown said. “They have to fully fund education. What that means to me and most teachers is to make up 100 percent of the cuts they’ve been making the last 10 years.”
The state Senate on Friday is expected to take up bills that would expand tribal casino gambling to include “ball and dice” games and to increase internet sales tax collections. Those measures are expected to generate additional dollars that can be directed toward education.
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“Educators have been passionately advocating for their students and asking the Legislature to provide more funding for our classrooms, and it seems those calls are being heard,” said Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest. “Tomorrow the Senate has an opportunity to help turn the tide for education in Oklahoma and provide additional funding that our students greatly need and deserve.”
Senators also will take up a bill to remove a $5 hotel/motel fee that was included in a broader revenue-raising package that was approved to fund teacher pay raises and increased education funding.
The overall revenue package to pay for teacher pay increases and increased common education funding was $457 million, but removing the hotel/motel fee dropped that by nearly $44 million.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said the $2.9 billion common education budget, which has been signed by the governor, will still be balanced without the $44 million.
Treat said misinformation is being spread among some groups — intentionally and unintentionally — that the education budget is not fully funded.
“It absolutely is,” Treat said. “We passed a budget. We are obligated to pay for it, and we will pay for it.”
Treat said he does not anticipate any additional modifications to the education budget.
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The Oklahoma Education Association has listed three teacher demands that would end the walkout: fill the gap created by the potential repeal of the hotel/motel tax, which the Oklahoma House voted to repeal last week; pass a bill that would bring in new revenue by allowing “ball and dice” gambling; and find additional revenue sources to increase funding for schools.
No progress yet
Democrats again tried unsuccessfully Thursday morning to bring to the House floor a bill to effectively raise the state capital gains tax.
The Republican majority’s leadership says Senate Bill 1086 won’t be heard because the GOP caucus agreed to raise the gross production tax on horizontal oil and gas wells instead, but Democrats continues to press the issue.
As he had for the past four days, Rep. Scott Inman, D-Del City, moved to suspend the rules to bring the bill to the floor but was voted down along party lines. Democrats also tried unsuccessfully to prevent the House from adjourning for the day.
By 11:45 a.m. Sulphur Public Schools teacher Amy Howe had been waiting outside the office of House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, for two hours and 15 minutes, even though she had a 10 a.m. appointment. She was not offended.
“I am happy to wait. I understand he’s busy. His assistant has been so nice, and he came out a while ago to talk to us and said he had to go to a caucus meeting. I’ll wait,” Howe said.
The fourth-grade teacher who has spent her entire 25-year career at Sulphur said she doubted she had anything to tell McCall that he hasn’t already heard but that she needed to do it for her own peace of mind. Her message? “We can’t do this every year. We feel like this is every year,” Howe said.
There were fewer people in the Capitol rotunda Thursday than on any previous day of the teacher walkout, which started Monday, as law enforcement officials and fire marshals cracked down on occupancy rates. But the overall number of protestors didn’t appear any smaller than on previous days of the walkout, as many protestors demonstrated outdoors.
Large groups from individual districts could be seen, including at least 250 people wearing Yukon shirts who posed for a group photo on the north side of the Capitol and a group of at least 50 students following a massive Moore flag in a circle around the Capitol grounds.
Passion still strong
The ability of public education advocates to show up showed no signs of waning as there were many newcomers to the protest Thursday among those who had been there every day this week.
Kim Schooler, who teaches fourth grade at Norman’s Truman Elementary School, was among the latter, along with at least 16 buses full of other Norman teachers. Unless lawmakers are able to come up with some dramatic new revenues for public schools on Friday, she’ll be back first thing Monday, even if her district reopens, she said.
She said she has pleaded, to no avail, with her own senator, Rob Standridge, R-Norman, to consider removing the capital gains tax exemption on real estate and stocks, as well as allowing casino gambling with real dice and balls to bring in new money for schools.
“Our senators and representatives can sit in here and pass laws, but they don’t see what’s happening in our classrooms day to day,” she said. “Compromise means nobody comes away 100 percent happy. Just like we have children in our classrooms who don’t learn as quick as others, we work with them. I feel like we’re here working on their (lawmakers’) learning curve.”
The Oklahoma Education Association has not specified a dollar amount teachers would accept to end the walkout. It’s clear that teachers themselves, who used their collective power to begin the walkout and hold all of the power to end it, are not at all unified behind any one answer or dollar amount.
For Schooler, it would take lawmakers filling the void created by the anticipated repeal of a newly passed hotel/motel tax that would have funded a portion of teacher raises and the creation of a significant, permanent new revenue source for public schools.
“We were going to be here Friday even if they weren’t, and I would be here on Monday even if I have to use my own leave,” she said.
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Randy Krehbiel contributed to this story.
Andrea Eger
Tulsa World Staff Writer
Barbara Hoberock
Tulsa World Capitol Bureau Staff Writer
