Tag: Education

Report shows state teacher shortage

February 21, 2019

Using historical educational and population data, market trends and demand-supply projections, the 2018 Oklahoma Educator Supply and Demand Report shows the percentage of educators leaving the profession has increased over the past six years, representing more than 5,000 per year or a total of approximately 30,000. This is average of 10 percent of Oklahoma’s teacher…

Onslaught of new students expected

February 14, 2019

Officials at the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) are preparing for what they anticipate to be an overload of visitors in the weeks before Oklahoma schools start classes. That concern is intensified with Oklahoma City Public Schools’ decision to start classes this year at the same time as most other schools in the state….

2 TPS board races on Feb. 12 ballot

February 7, 2019

Eight candidates will be on the ballot on February 12 for the District 1 in the Tulsa Public Schools and two for District 2. The primary election is February 12 and the general election is April 2. Board member Gary Perceful is not seeking re-election, so that is an open seat. The candidates who filed…

GOP leaders lay out 2019 agenda

February 7, 2019

Senate Republicans will attempt to increase accountability in state government by creating a legislative budget office and will protect the state’s $2.9 billion investment in education as part of their 2019 legislative session, according to a press release by Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat and members of the GOP Caucus. “Our agenda is simple…

Public schools show a slight increase

February 7, 2019

Statewide enrollment is up a bit; Tulsa enrollment keeps dropping Oklahoma’s public schools have a slightly increasing student population, according to numbers released by the State Department of Education. Tulsa Public Schools are losing students – 2,059 in the past five years with 540 in the past year. Broken Arrow stayed virtually the same (11…

Letter: The cure for Oklahoma education

February 7, 2019 Byron Schlomach

Governor Kevin Stitt has made it his goal to move Oklahoma toward Top 10 status among the states. Exactly how he would measure this is unclear, but education is obviously targeted, given its prominence in his inaugural speech. This much is clear, though; Oklahoma will not become a top-ten state in education just by spending…

Homeless kids on scholarships

January 31, 2019

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat on filed legislation that would allow homeless students to qualify for the highly successful Lindsey Nicole Henry (LNH) scholarship program. The LNH scholarship program was created in 2010 to provide state funds to children with special needs to attend private schools that could better accommodate their…

Bill scales back student testing

January 31, 2019

State Sen. J.J. Dossett has filed legislation to assure students, parents and educators that the results of a single reading test won’t cause children to be held back. Dossett, a former teacher, said when the Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) was originally approved in 2011, the idea was to use a federally-mandated reading test to determine…

Editorial: Vote for Nicole Nixon for TPS

January 17, 2019

One of the reasons for the ongoing failure in Tulsa Public Schools is the political idealogy of the local school board. For years, the only openly conservative member of the Tulsa School Board was Dr. Lois Jacobs and she left after being harassed by the liberal news media, the teachers’ union and groups like the…

Reform for state administrators?

January 10, 2019

Following public outcry about school funding and concern over high administrative salaries, Sen. Ron Sharp filed legislation to make superintendent salaries a completely local decision. Senate Bill 60 would require superintendent salaries and fringe benefits to be paid with only district (ad valorem dollars) and dedicated local funds. The bill would stop any state appropriated…