As we enter the 2nd half of the state legislative session, many public school related bills are still alive in both the senate and house - good, bad, and ugly. I actually titled this blog "the good, the bad, and the ugly" before seeing Joe Dorman's article of the same name, so no copyright infringement is assumed. Dorman is Executive Director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA). While his column describes the good, bad, and ugly legislation for children in general, my blog/column describes the good, bad, and ugly bills for public school students. I'll start with a couple of the good bills, review a bad one, and even describe one of the "fake" public school bills - "the ugly".
House Bill 1114 is one of two remaining teacher pay raise bills. It provides a $1000 pay raise next year, a $2000 raise for the '18-'19 school year, and an additional $3000 for the '19-'20 school year for a total $6000 pay raise spread over 3 years. While everyone knows by now that there are no revenue sources available for such a pay increase, I believe now that the legislature could determine some sources, whether that means raising taxes or using current sources redirected to teacher pay. Many people believe it is very unlikely the legislature would actually vote to raise taxes, as any increase requires a two-thirds majority vote in the senate. Also, many lawmakers signed that Grover Norquist pledge to never vote to increase tax rates. Many lawmakers now say that pledge only requires them to never vote to increase corporate tax rates, so they're free to increase taxes for middle class Oklahomans. Those lawmakers who've received corporate donations, therefore, may increase taxes for ordinary citizens, and still be in compliance with The Pledge. In addition, Governor Fallin is now demanding that the legislature "balance the state budget" by any means necessary, including increasing taxes for the working poor. Those lawmakers who signed The Pledge, now have an excuse for breaking it: "My boss told me I had to raise taxes".
Senate Bill 618 is the senate version of HB 1114 - the teacher pay raise bill. It provides a 4% increase for the '17 - '18 school year and another 4% raise for the '18 - '19 school year. This amounts to an approximate $1264 raise next year and another $1264 for the year after, for a grand total $2528 raise over two years. I will say this, however, about SB 618 - the author was overheard saying that we could raise the tax on gasoline and deisel to pay for the raise, so a revenue source has been identified. Lawmakers will simply put it on the back of consumers once again, instead of expecting corporate executives to pay for it. This tax increase will only affect you and I, sparing billionaires the agony of becoming poorer billionaires - or for goodness sake... only millionaires.
All jesting aside, I believe teachers stand a very good chance of receiving a pay raise (albeit small) next year, as most lawmakers at this point don't have the guts to not provide one. These two bills, HB 1114 and SB 618, are two of the "good" bills, so now let's examine a "bad" bill...
Any and all proposed state budget bills will be bad for our public schools and students, although Dorman describes the present budget fiasco as "ugly". (Legislation can be both bad and ugly, but not good, bad, and ugly simultaneously. The specific budget bill number(s) is still unknown since the budget, in all likelihood, won't be drafted until the last week of the session in May. The public school portion of the budget could suffer as much as a 15% reduction from last year's record low water mark or range upward to an "announced" flat appropriation. Many school finance experts now know that a "flat appropriation", as determined by state lawmakers, actually means a 5% reduction in state aid. A 15% reduction would amount to approximately $900,000 for Blanchard Schools, while a 5% reduction would result in losing $300,000. I know that most people are familiar with basic mathematics, so can figure the above reductions for themselves. There may be a few lawmakers reading this post, however, so I've spelled it out (for them only). The bottom line for public schools is that budget bill (which will be announced toward the end of the session in order to prevent minimal backlash) will be terrible for public schools.
As stated earlier, Joe Dorman also listed good, bad, and ugly bills for kids. One of his "bad" bills (House Bill 1482) is one I have listed as just "ugly", but I'll quote Mr. Dorman as to why he believes HB 1482 is bad for kids, and then provide my opinion as to why it's ugly.
Politicians overrule voters on criminal justice: HB 1482, a bill to roll back criminal justice reforms approved by voters on the 2016 ballot, passed in the House by a razor thin margin. If it becomes law, it will undo many of the "smart on crime" sentencing reform related to personal drug use and reinstate policies that break up families and increase our incarceration rate.
Most Oklahoma voters understand why this bill is bad, even before reading Joe Dorman's column. I believe the bill should also be classified as "ugly" because of the way the authors of HB 1482 have tried to gain support for it. The supporters of the ugly bill have tried to connect it with public schools by relating that it is "for the safety of our students". The bill, in fact, has nothing to do with the safety of our kids - but has everything to do with increasing revenue for district attorneys and defense lawyers. Many consider it a "fake" bill because the motivation for its passage is "more money", instead of the advertised motive - for the kids. I believe all fake bills are also ugly, hence the appropriate classification.
There are several more "good, bad, and ugly" bills still alive in the House and Senate (approximately 70), so we've only touched the tip of the legislative iceberg in describing four. The majority of those remaining are bad and ugly, but we'll try to find a few more good ones next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment