Todd's Education Plan for Oklahoma

   Todd Lamb, republican candidate for governor, has a plan for our public schools: ... reduce administrative costs so we get a minimum of 65% of every education dollar spent directly with teachers in the classroom. Mr. Lamb goes on to say ... currently fewer than ten of Oklahoma's more than 500 school districts are spending at least 65% of their education dollars in the classroom. The low number of districts reaching even that modest threshold potentially understates how inefficiently our schools finances are being spent. One study shows that on a statewide basis, less than 45% of total education expenses went to instruction in 2016... In-classroom expenditures include teacher salaries, textbooks, and smartboards.
   Spending so much of our education dollars outside the classroom is simply unacceptable and must stop. Oklahoma must stop growing administrative overhead in our schools and focus on the two most important people in the learning process: the teachers and students... Oklahoma must continually make certain our teachers have a competitive salary. Todd Lamb wants the best and brightest teachers in Oklahoma and knows we can pay our teachers more by dedicating more of our existing education funding to the classroom.

   While this education plan sounds great to many Oklahoma voters - many teachers and other public school supporters question its authenticity and even believe Todd Lamb is pandering to his corporate base by lying, cheating, and stealing. The facts speak for themselves when examining the details of Lamb's education plan:
   Gary Jones (R) "conservative candidate for governor" said that Lamb's 65% plan for our public schools - has been "co-opted" from national and international corporate interests and "called it his own". Jones says that Lamb Chop "wants to limit administrative costs of others, that doesn't apply to the Lt. Governor" (Lamb's job). Gary Jones is a Certified Public Accountant and the current State Auditor and Inspector, and goes on to say "You don't have to be a CPA to know what being chauffeured around in a state-owned vehicle, driven by a highway patrolman, attending campaign fundraisers, all the while picking up campaign contributions, doesn't pass the smell test. The use of taxpayer funds to campaign for public office is a misuse of state resources regardless of who it is." Jones also says that Lamb's style of travel costs taxpayers upwards of $250,000 annually - which adds up to nearly $2,000,000.00 for his 8-year term as Lt. Governor. (Jones made these comments in response to Lamb running a TV ad saying that "some school administrators receive a "car allowance" while classroom teachers and students struggle with torn textbooks, etc...) Hill folk down on Rush Creek, of which I proudly claim, call Lamb's style of campaign rhetoric - B.S.
   Lamb's recycled plan for our public schools has been copied (and pasted) from "The 65% (final) solution" of the corporate reform movement for school consolidation (now led by Betsy DeVos). In Betsy's... (I mean Todd's) plan, since a high percentage of school expenditures is for administrative costs - simply reducing the number of school administrators will "magically" transfer school funding to teacher pay raises, etc..., and the only way to reduce the number of school administrators is through school consolidation. According to Lamb, it's just good 'ole common sense. The only problem with the Betsy/Mary/Todd Consolidation Plan to rid schools of administrative costs - is that public schools in Oklahoma are already limited for administrative expenditures (6% and 8% of total expenditures, depending on the number of students). The Betsy/Mary/Todd 65% Final Solution Plan
(Note: Mary Fallin ordered schools to spend at least 60% in the classroom last September) would have made more sense to read "... reduce administrative costs so we get a minimum of 95% of every education dollar spent directly with teachers in the classroom."  It doesn't take a Ph.D. in school funding to realize that Lamb is no math wizard (although he did stay at a Holiday Inn last night). Gary Watts explains Todd's 65% final solution much better than I can in his blog post Lamb Pulls Wool Over His Own Eyes.
   Fact: Superintendent salaries make up about 1% of all education expenditures in Oklahoma.
Todd Lamb says "With an appropriated budget of 2.9 billion dollars for the upcoming fiscal year, increasing the amount of spending in the classroom by just 1%, we can increase dollars spent on instruction by 29 million dollars." Todd Lamb, through the use of rhetoric and sometimes outright lies, has been trying to convince conservatives that the education problem can be solved by eliminating school superintendents and consolidating our public schools. Todd is betting that many voters who read his plan for education (or listen to his rhetoric), do not understand the facts concerning school funding and finance. He may be right, as only teachers and a few conservative voters (about 5%) really do see his poor math skills (but high political skills) - so he may still be elected...