Much of America’s prosperity is thanks to our long history of public investments in education. In fact, article 13 of Oklahoma’s Constitution declares:
“The Legislature shall establish and maintain a system of free public schools wherein all the children of the State may be educated.”
You saw last week in our 8 key facts about Oklahoma’s budget (#betterok Budget Bootcamp) that common education receives the largest slice of our appropriations budget. And we’ve all become painfully aware that shrinking that whole pie shrinks the education slice too.
For this 2nd week of the #betterok Budget Bootcamp, we invite you to take a closer look at these 8 key facts about education funding in Oklahoma (#Betterok Budget Bootcamp) because it is essential that we all know why:
- #1: Education is the key to prosperity across the states
- #2: Education is the largest part of the state appropriations budget
- #3: Most state K-12 education funding goes directly to local districts
- #4: Local schools are very dependent on state funding
- #5: Oklahoma has made the deepest cuts in the nation to per pupil state aid funding in recent years
- #6: Oklahoma teacher pay is lowest in our region and near the lowest in the nation
- #7: The lottery helps some, but Oklahoma has lost more education funding to tax cuts than we gained from the lottery
- #8: A large majority of Oklahoma school spending goes directly to services for students and support for teachers
Find more about these 8 key facts HERE on our togetherok.org weekly blog.
Together Oklahoma Events Coming Up in January
January 14th– TOK Norman – Legislative 101 from 2-4pm at the Norman Public Library (keep an eye on the Facebook event and your email to see if weather postpones this event.)
January 16th–Marching with Together Oklahoma in the OKC MLK day parade.
January 16th– Marching with Together Oklahoma in the Tulsa MLK day parade.
January 19th – TOK OKC Happy Hour
January 26th– Oklahoma Policy Institute State Budget Summit
buy your tickets here.
January 28th– TOK Tulsa: Legislative 101
January 29th– TOK OKC: Legislative 101
February 6th– State of the State and the Start of the Session
February 6th– TOK OKC Happy Hour
Events with some other great Oklahoma groups:
January 17th– Norman Women Lead Networking Event
January 17th – League of Women Voters Tulsa – Mid-Day Unit Meeting
January 20th – UCO Voter’s Issue Forum
January 23rd – League of Women Voters Tulsa – North Tulsa Unit Meeting
January 24th – League of Women Voters Tulsa – Breakfast Unit Meeting
January 28th– Pipeline to Politics with the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition
February 9th– Let’s Fix This: Info & Training Session
Find these events and more on our TOK and Community Calendar and remember to sign up for our local TOK chapters if you haven’t already done so.
