Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Oklahoma newspapers:
Muskogee Phoenix. April 29, 2018.
Education Foundation of Muskogee members long have had the backs of our educators and students.
The foundation has raised money to provide grants to teachers for classroom projects. Those projects might not happen or would have to be funded by teachers themselves if not for the work of the good people at the foundation.
The foundation recently awarded 17 grants totaling $24,307 for classroom projects including:
- “Books are Alive with the Sound of Music,” Pershing Elementary Librarian Marlene Moore, $2,000.
- “Expanding Participation - Engagement with Low-Level Technology,” Cherokee Elementary, Kathy Lee, $1,781.
- “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here,” Alice Robertson Junior High School, Shalyn Gallaway.
Oklahoma educators staged a walkout at the state Capitol during April to get legislators to approve a pay raise for teachers and find additional funding for education.
The walkout raised awareness for the need to better fund education throughout the state.
Organizations such as the Education Foundation of Muskogee have supported students and educators for years.
Many individuals and businesses contributed to make the grants possible.
All those who participated in fundraisers for the foundation deserve gratitude as well.
We’re lucky to live in a community that includes so many individuals and businesses who place importance on education and a better quality of life for our children’s future.
Thank you, Education Foundation of Muskgoee.
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The Oklahoman. May 1, 2018.
It was soon after the Legislature sent Gov. Mary Fallin the largest budget in state history that House Democrats did what comes naturally - criticize Republican leadership for its “failures.” This round of rhetoric rang particularly hollow, however.
Rep. Steve Kouplen, D-Beggs, said the $7.6 billion budget approved last week is better than previous years, but “falls short of meeting the needs of Oklahomans” and was built “primarily by increasing the tax burden on working-class Oklahomans.” The latter is a reference to the increases in cigarettes and motor fuel taxes; omitted was that House Democrats had sought larger tobacco tax increases in recent years on those same working-class Oklahomans.
Kouplen whined about “irresponsible income tax cuts” not being addressed, a shopworn line that ignores the fact a Democratic governor signed most of those cuts, or that in the past 10 years the state has had to weather a national recession and a major downturn in the energy industry.
Kouplen bemoaned the fact “wasteful corporate tax exemptions like the capital gains exemption” remain on the books. Sigh. After the Legislature approved a $474 million tax package giving teachers pay raises averaging $6,100, and teachers and others swarmed the Capitol seeking more, House Democrats railed against the capital gains tax exemption - knowing that they had literally, during negotiations on the tax package, signed off on an agreement to leave the exemption alone.
Recall, also, that it was House Democrats’ lack of support that sent the Step Up Oklahoma plan to its grave. That plan would have generated $581 million and thus met more of the needs Kouplen says he’s so concerned about. But because Step Up didn’t boost the gross production tax rate as high as Democrats wanted, only 10 of 28 House members voted in favor (53 of 72 Republicans said “yes” to Step Up) and it fell short of the 75 percent approval that was needed.
The education budget, Kouplen says, is lacking in many areas including a failure to provide enough money “to bring back” the teachers who have left for better-paying jobs or end four-day school weeks. As to the former point, how much money, exactly, would bring back the teachers who have left?
As to the latter point, four-day school weeks are used regularly as a cudgel to illustrate Oklahoma’s education shortcomings. But if Kouplen and others are so worried about four-day weeks, all they need to do is change state law. The Legislature several years ago approved a change mandating that students be in class a set number of hours each year. Some districts moved to four-day weeks; others have followed.
The popular narrative is that districts are so strapped they can’t afford to be open five days. Yet even state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, a vocal critic of the Legislature’s funding practices, acknowledges that the four-day weeks produce minimal cost savings, if any, and that districts have turned the shorter week into a successful teacher recruiting tool.
You also never hear a word from Democrats about pursuing reforms in common education. It’s an absolute nonstarter.
But hey, if you’re the head of a minority caucus, it’s easier to lob rhetorical bombs at those charged with trying to govern. Kouplen and his lieutenants have this tiresome routine down pat.
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Tulsa World. May 1, 2018.
After decades of war, stalemate and the threat of nuclear holocaust, an amazing set of developments could be setting the stage for something truly amazing on the Korean peninsula: peace.
After a weekend meeting, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un would abandon his efforts to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for the United States agreeing to end the Korean War.
Kim also reportedly said his nation is ready to close its underground nuclear test site next month, when he is tentatively scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump.
The mercurial nature of Kim and the history of the peninsula should give us all reason to be cautious, but, if the offer is legitimate and verifiable, we should take it.
At great expense, the United States has more than 23,000 military personnel staged in South Korea, a remnant of a war that everyone stopped fighting in 1953, but was never formally concluded.
The United States doesn’t recognize the North Korean government. Kim’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests have raised the alarm of a potential nuclear threat to the U.S. homeland.
Ethnic and social connections connect the two Koreas. They are two halves of a common people. The commercially successful South Koreans seem ready to help their cousins to the north, and the potential price of agreeing to give up on regime change seems cheap.
Moon has said President Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership on the Korean issue. At times Trump’s efforts have been frightening, but if the two sides can pull off a peace treaty that will allow the U.S. to reduce its military presence on the peninsula and end the threat of nuclear attack, it seems clear that someone deserves the thanks of a grateful world.
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