Dive Brief:
- Thousands of Oklahoma educators, parents, and students met at the state's capitol Monday to rally against the under-funding of public education, overcrowding of classrooms, and lagging teacher salaries. One big concern is a current $611 million gap in the state budget.
- This may seem like deja vu to some, as one year ago, educators also rallied at the capitol to argue for increases in education funding to no avail.
- Like last year, a main concern for protesters is teacher salaries — Oklahoma educators get paid some of the lowest salaries in the nation, which they say leads people to leave the profession.
Dive Insight:
It’s been seven years since teachers have received a state-funded pay raise. Currently the average teacher salary is $43,846, which is the lowest average out of the seven states that are closest to Oklahoma.
Beyond just teacher salaries, there is the issue of per-pupil funding. Today, the state has 40,000 more students than it did in 2009, but the recession has left the state's education budget $200 million less than it was in 2009.When teachers rallied last year, the Oklahoma Education Association wrote a brief piece about the event and interviewed Steven Crawford, the executive director of the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration. According to Crawford, Oklahoma comes in at No. 49 in the nation for student spending. In the 2013-14 school year, per-pupil spending was at a measly $3,032 — $234 less than the per-pupil funding in the 2008-09 school year.
