In a message posted to the Sapulpa Public Schools Facebook Page, Superintendent Rob Armstrong reported in a local teacher survey that over 91% of the teachers at SPS planned to participate in a walkout if legislature doesn’t reach a decision by April 1st. The Sapulpa Board of Education has authorized Superintendent Armstrong to suspend schools for up to 25 days. See the post here.
Armstrong says the school is gathering resources and information on how to handle the walkout as a family if it happens. Sapulpa Times will share that information with you as soon as we get it.
In an opinion piece we previously published, we were shocked to find in a statewide survey, 7 out of 10 teachers said they wouldn’t return to the classroom even if we paid them more. See that story here.
Some schools, like Cushing, aren’t participating in the walkout. Cushing Public Schools not only pays their teachers $800 more than the state average, but thanks to local wealth brought about by oil storage facilities, was able to pay their teachers $1500 stipends in both the fall and spring semesters. More on that here.
It’s not the first time there’s been a walkout. 28 years ago in 1990, there was a 4-day walkout for the very same thing. At the time, only 24% of Oklahoma’s schools participated. This year may have a much larger turnout. More on the 1990 walkout here.
So is it a walkout or a strike? They’re almost the same thing. The only real differentiating factor is that in a walkout, the protesters will show up for work, and then intentionally walkout in an organized manner; in a strike, the workers simply won’t show up until the demands are met. More on that here.
Wait, wasn’t the lottery supposed to fix this problem? Championed as a great new source of revenue for our schools, Governor Brad Henry said at the time that the lottery could produce as much as $300 million per year for our schools. On election night, supporters said it could be as much as $150 million. So far, the highest the lottery has provided for schools is $71 million. The average is $68 million. In 2016, the amount of lottery funds the Oklahoma Department of Education received was barely enough to cover 1% of it’s budget. More on that here.
Oklahoma public schools have seen a sharp increase in turnover in recent years. Tulsa Public Schools alone saw a turnover rate between 2017-2018 of over 21%. A full 17%+ of Oklahoma’s teachers are considered “unqualified” because they don’t have a standard teaching certificate. The number of emergency teaching certificates handed out for this school year so far has reached nearly 2,000. More facts and stats here.
