We need to send a message to our teachers that we care, says Shadid

by Rob Howard
Associate Editor

“We are all in agreement that education is the key to neighborhood revitalization, it’s the key to economic development, it’s the key to corporate retention and corporate recruitment,” said Oklahoma City Council Member Ed Shadid when announcing a petition drive to help fund education in Oklahoma City.

A coalition of elected officials, faith leaders, parents, teacher and other concerned citizens of the Oklahoma City metro area gathered at the OKC City Hall this morning to announce the initiative petition campaign. They are proposing a one-quarter percent temporary city income tax to fund grants to teachers, and a separate one-quarter percent income tax to fund lowering class size.

“We think this is a time for creative solutions to fill that gap, and we think this is a creative solution. The city of Oklahoma City is not getting adequate help from the federal government and the state government. We think the people of Oklahoma City have the right to determine how much they want to invest in OKC public schools,” Shadid continued.

“The Brookings Institute study that was recently commissioned, looking at an innovation district, had a very haunting line and that’s that Oklahoma City is running out of time,” said Shadid. He noted that Gov. Mary Fallin has said there would be at least two more years before education funding was addressed, given that 2018 is an election year.

“We don’t have a minimum of two years to wait. We need to send a message to teachers that we care, to wait on us before relocating to other cities, and make this investment in our teachers and our support staff but most importantly in our children,” he concluded.

Paula Lewis, Chair of the Oklahoma City School Board, said of the plan, “It’s the right thing to do and it’s an urgent thing to do.”

Casting the lack of funding for education in the metro area as part of a lack of infrastructure, Lewis said, “We need kids to have the people they need in place teach them, we need wrap around services and we need to move forward as a city, we need to move forward with all our infrastructure.

“Yes, we need to move forward with streets, we need to address the incarceration rate that we have. We also need to move forward on funding better health care, our department of human services, and school’s right there. You can connect the dots very easily. When you look at education not succeeding, we see that pipeline to prison. We also know that when you are not dealing with mental health, you have a harder time succeeding in education. We have to move forward as a city,” Lewis concluded.

Lewis told The Gayly that proceeds from the tax would go to all 24 schools districts that fall within Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City Public Schools would receive about 70 percent of the total. The two measures are expected to raise about $25 million each.

Shadid indicated that looking at the median income in the area, each tax would probably cost a family $25 a year.

The petitions are being drafted; once filed the group will have 90 days to collect at least 12,000 signatures to get the measures on the ballot.  Recent polling suggests widespread support across a wide array of demographic categories for such an endeavor, said an information sheet distributed by the group.

Asked if any other city council members were supporting this effort, Shadid replied, "No."

Copyright 2017 The Gayly – June 22, 2017 @ 11:50 a.m.