“A good education”

By Sandy Garrett, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Thursday, January 28, 2010

	The state Legislature convenes the first week of February each year. This year, Gov. Brad Henry and lawmakers are addressing some of the most complex financial issues in state history. Yet, fundamentally, the dilemma they face is no different than that faced by every family in Oklahoma:   How will we stretch the money we have to pay for what we critically need?   
            State leaders are sorting through a long list of competing public and private interests, revisiting previous funding commitments, and assigning priorities that will impact all Oklahomans - not just this year, but for generations to come.
            Nearly two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson enthusiastically endorsed education as the key to our nation’s peace, prosperity, self-governance and strength as a world power.  In 1818, he noted that if our children are not educated, “their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education."
	Today, a “good education” enables a student to graduate high school with the skills needed for college or for meaningful work.  Anything short of that virtually guarantees insecurity and perhaps reliance on some form of government assistance and being a long-term burden on taxpayers. 
           Oklahoma school teachers have proven they can pinch a penny.  Despite hard-fought gains, we rank last in our region in spending per student.  Yet, we earned high marks from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s second national report card on education and from Education Week's annual "Quality Counts" ranking of states. And, Oklahoma continues to be the nation’s model for early childhood education.   
            These same strides cannot be expected if we continue to operate on an unraveling budget. If the goal is to improve the quality of life for all Oklahomans with the least possible burden on taxpayers in this economy, we must: 
* Hold common education harmless from across-the-board budget cuts that do not reflect priorities of state leaders; 
* Give schools the funding to pay for legislative mandates, such as health insurance, or suspend particular mandates until the economy improves; 
* Protect the financial base of education funding so that local school boards can practice long-range planning instead of reactive management; 
* Increase schools' operating funds because of new mandates, nearly 10,000 more students this school year, and rising costs of transportation, utilities, and more; and
* Embrace innovation, and expand use of technology to meet requirements for remediation and alternative education and provide students with a globally competitive 21st century education.  
	We agree with Jefferson that children are the key to our collective future prosperity and peace. If we fail to educate them to high standards, we place their future in peril, and jeopardize our own.
      
Read to a child – the benefits last a lifetime!
       




www.sde.state.ok.us


EDITORS: For more information, contact Shelly Hickman, State Department of Education, (405) 521-3371.