Day seven of the teacher walk-out...

                                       An open letter (plea) to our corporate legislators:


Mr. lawmaker,
   You are the only one who has the ability and authority to send our teachers back to the classroom. Our school boards have no such authority and neither do superintendents. You see, teachers know that state appropriated student funding in Oklahoma has been slashed by 28% since 2008, more than any other state in the nation. While you choose to wear that statistic as a badge of honor from your corporate bosses, our students are suffering. You say that Oklahoma has a poor economy, and you can't afford to appropriate more funding for our public schools. However, the poor Oklahoma economy has not affected your paycheck - as most of you earn in excess of $60,000 annual salary for your part-time job (4 months). Many of you also have other jobs which pay as much as $120,000 for the remaining 8 months, for a total $180,000 annual salary. The corporate lawmakers among you also have campaign slush funds which often total more than $100,000 and are provided by out-of-state and international corporate bosses, and for which several have been known to use personally (Kyle Loveless).
   You have responded to the teacher walk-out by calling them "extortionists", by telling them to go ahead and "be pissed", by referring to teachers as "spoiled teenagers", or by voting "NO" on all teacher raise bills - and then "thanking" them for not walking out. Every time one of you degrades or insults teachers - one more day is added to the walk-out. So stop it! Please!
   You say you will never vote to increase taxes as a way to fund teacher pay increases and provide more student funding, but you have never come up with another way. Of course, some of you have voted for regressive tax increases to fund schools, but you'll hold the line on tax increases for the wealthy and corporate tax restoration. You will never vote to restore the "intangible" property tax, corporate income tax, or gross production tax - because they are the entities which fund your campaigns. You don't give a damn when the gas tax is increased by 3 cents a gallon, but you complain loudly when the GPT increases to 5% (still the lowest rate in the nation).
   You have blamed everyone but yourself for the teacher walk-out... school administrators, school boards, the economy, teacher greed, and finally - the teachers themselves. Many of your supporters are starting to parrot your excuses, as they too try to shift the blame.
   So, I'll make the plea one last time - Please send our teachers back to classroom by appropriately funding our public schools...