{"id":29241,"date":"2018-02-01T13:41:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=29241"},"modified":"2018-02-02T09:38:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T15:38:33","slug":"educators-say-legislation-on-spending-flexibility-could-increase-school-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/02\/01\/educators-say-legislation-on-spending-flexibility-could-increase-school-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"Educators Say Legislation On Spending Flexibility Could Increase School Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29243\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29243\" alt=\"Superintendent of Blanchard Public Schools, Jim Beckham, says if schools used property taxes for teacher pay, there\u2019d be big inequities from district to district. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/011918_JimBeckham-WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/011918_JimBeckham-WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/011918_JimBeckham-WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/011918_JimBeckham-WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/011918_JimBeckham-WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Superintendent of Blanchard Public Schools, Jim Beckham, says if schools used property taxes for teacher pay, there\u2019d be big inequities from district to district.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oklahoma lawmakers have butted heads for years over how to increase funding for education, but one recurring idea has been to give schools more flexibility in spending the money they already have.<\/p><p>A new bill filed by Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, is the most recent attempt to do this.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/393035283&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us\/cf_pdf\/2017-18%20INT\/SB\/SB887%20INT.PDF\">Senate Bill 887<\/a> would allow schools to spend the money in their building fund on anything they want including books, classroom supplies, and teacher salaries. Currently, state law restricts that money for buildings, repairs and maintenance.<\/p><p>Superintendent of Blanchard Public Schools, Jim Beckham, says the legislation appears helpful.<\/p><p>\u201cIt sounds like it allows schools to use a different fund than they previously could for teacher\u2019s salaries.\u201d<\/p><p>But Beckham thinks it\u2019s a bad policy.<\/p><p>\u201cThere\u2019s an inequity, a basic inequity, built into this bill,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h3>Stealing Teachers<\/h3><p>School building funds are fed by local property taxes, which vary wildly from district to district.<\/p><p>Take a city like Blanchard, for example, where there\u2019s not a lot of industry and compare that to Newcastle, just 10 miles away, which has a Walmart, a casino and a power plant.<\/p><p>This disparity in business activity means Newcastle has more money in its building fund than Blanchard. Beckham worries if legislation like SB 887 passes, Newcastle could pay teachers more \u2014 and possibly bait away some of his staff.<\/p><p>\u201cThe wealthy schools could lure more teachers and better teachers,\u201d he says. \u201cThe poorer schools would be relegated to having the teachers they have.\u201d<\/p><p>Newcastle Superintendent Tony O\u2019Brien says he understands Beckham\u2019s concern. He thinks the bill would worsen inequalities between districts. However, O\u2019Brien says even if his district could tap its building fund, it wouldn\u2019t be stealing teachers anytime soon. The Newcastle building fund is all used up, he says.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like I have a bunch of money sitting in there, floating in there, to throw at my teachers,\u201d he says. \u201cWe still have to repair air conditioners, we still have to repair heaters at this time of the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Not the answer<\/h3><p>O\u2019Brien says there are some Oklahoma school districts that could benefit from legislation like SB 887, and that\u2019s the small number of schools that already get so much money in local property taxes they don\u2019t receive any money from the state.<\/p><p>\u201cThose schools that are already doing well\u2026 they could really put some money toward their teacher salaries,\u201d he says. \u201cThey would be pirating teachers left and right.\u201d<\/p><p>Both superintendents say what their schools really need is for lawmakers to raise teacher salaries statewide, and send more revenue to schools for education.<\/p><p>Sen. Brecheen says he never intended this bill to be the answer to Oklahoma\u2019s teacher pay problem. He understands that\u2019s going to require more work from the Legislature.<\/p><p>Brecheen instead says he hopes the legislation could be a temporary fix, giving schools more spending options until lawmakers find consensus on a more permanent school funding solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma lawmakers have butted heads for years over how to increase funding for education, but one recurring idea has been to give schools more flexibility in spending the money they already have.A new bill filed by Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, is the most recent attempt to do this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":29243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[749,721,738,136],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29241"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29268,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29241\/revisions\/29268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}