{"id":30927,"date":"2018-11-08T14:17:29","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30927"},"modified":"2018-11-16T15:51:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T21:51:31","slug":"educator-caucus-falls-short-of-election-goals-but-vows-to-keep-pushing-for-more-school-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/11\/08\/educator-caucus-falls-short-of-election-goals-but-vows-to-keep-pushing-for-more-school-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Educator caucus\u2019 falls short of election goals, but vows to keep pushing for more school funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s about 9 p.m. in Coweta, a rural town south east of Tulsa.<\/p><p>The election results are still trickling in as Cyndi Ralston, a second-grade teacher -turned Democratic political candidate, steps on to the stage in the small event space where she\u2019s having her watch party.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/526795347&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>Framed by red, white and blue balloons, Ralston tells the crowd of about 30 supporters why she decided to run for the House District 12 seat.<\/p><p>\u201cI ran this year so that no teacher would have to walkout again,\u201d she said. \u201cI ran this year so that no family would have to lose their insurance again.\u201d<\/p><p>She thanks everyone for their support and concludes her speech \u2014 and her campaign \u2014 by conceding to Republican incumbent Kevin McDugle.<\/p><p>Before she steps down though, she has one last comment.<\/p><p>\u201cWe will not let them do what they have done,\u201d she said, promising to remain a vigilant watchdog over the legislature and make sure school funding remains a priority.<\/p><p>\u201cWe are watching them and we will call them out every single time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018A little discouraged\u2019<\/h3><p>Election Day was the end of an intense, seven-month political fight for Oklahoma teachers. Since the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kosu.org\/post\/oklahoma-teacher-walkout-stretches-day-four\">walkout in April<\/a>, they worked to oust incumbents they felt did not support public schools, and to elect new government officials who they hoped would be more supportive.<\/p><p>Some educators even ran for office themselves: About 100 former and current teachers and administrators put their names on the primary ballot. Roughly half made it to Election Day \u2014 only 17 won Tuesday night.<\/p><p>The 2018 election results disappointed many.<\/p><p>\u201cI just feel a little discouraged,\u201d said Mary Short, one of Ralston\u2019s friends and supporters who attended her watch party. \u201cI feel really sad for my teacher friends. They probably are feeling not very supported right now. And I\u2019m a little worried for the future of our students in Oklahoma.\u201d<\/p><p>Short said it seemed like there was so much support for education issues and education candidates during the 2018 election, so she expected more teachers to win their races.<\/p><p>She was also pulling for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Drew Edmondson because she believed he was the stronger advocate for public schools in that race. He lost, too.<\/p><p>Short thinks Democratic candidates like Ralston and Edmondson didn\u2019t win because many Oklahomans are very conservative, and won\u2019t consider voting for anyone who\u2019s not a Republican.<\/p><p>\u201cWhen the teacher walkout took place, a lot of people were in support of it. But what it came down to was partisan voting, and people just straight party voting,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Two Democratic incumbent lawmakers who are former teachers also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2018\/11\/07\/disappointment-largely-prevails-for-teacher-caucus\/\">lost their bids for re-election<\/a>: Representatives Karen Gaddis of Tulsa, and Donnie Condit, of McAlester.<\/p>\n<h3>New faces<\/h3><p>The Oklahoma Education Association called the 2018 election results a victory for education, saying in a press release, \u201cThere are now more educators in the legislature than ever before. No matter how you look at it, public education won.\u201d<\/p><p>The OEA counts 25 lawmakers in office that come from an education background, whether that be a teacher or school administrator position. Sixteen are Republicans, nine are Democrats.<\/p><p>Deven Carlson, an education policy researcher at the University of Oklahoma, agreed that teachers shouldn\u2019t be discouraged about the election results.<\/p><p>\u201cI think if you just look at it from the standpoint of \u2018did educators win?\u2019 it might seem like it fell a little bit flat,\u201d he said. But if you compare the composition of the 2019 legislature to last year\u2019s legislature he said things look \u201cdramatically different.\u201d<\/p><p>Next year\u2019s Legislature will include more than 50 new faces, and most of the lawmakers who voted against <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/03\/29\/lawmakers-pass-rare-tax-increase-for-education-but-funding-falls-short-of-teachers-demands\/\">a $450 million tax package\u00a0<\/a>to fund teacher pay raises are no longer in office. Many lost their re-elections, others stepped down from politics.<\/p><p>And Carlson said just because most new lawmakers aren\u2019t coming to the capitol from the classroom, doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t support public schools.<\/p><p>\u201cIf you look at the political evolution over the past six to eight months, it\u2019s possible to put together a much stronger case that the voters have expressed preferences about what they want out of their politicians with respect to education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Election Day was the end of an intense, seven-month political fight for Oklahoma teachers, but the &#8220;teacher caucus&#8221; did not fare as well as some had hoped. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":30928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[871,943],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30927"}],"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=30927"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30966,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30927\/revisions\/30966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}