{"id":35527,"date":"2023-01-26T16:59:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=35527"},"modified":"2023-01-26T17:00:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T23:00:47","slug":"oklahoma-state-superintendent-walters-proposes-education-budget-changes-no-across-the-board-teacher-raises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2023\/01\/26\/oklahoma-state-superintendent-walters-proposes-education-budget-changes-no-across-the-board-teacher-raises\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma State Superintendent Walters proposes education budget changes, no across-the-board teacher raises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly elected State Superintendent Ryan Walters <\/span>stumped legislators in a budget hearing earlier this week<\/span><\/a> when he said he planned to change the Board of Education\u2019s budget request approved under the previous superintendent.<\/span><\/p>

At a Thursday board meeting, Walters\u2019 <\/span>new numbers<\/span><\/a> were revealed, and overall, it\u2019s about $59 million less than the request approved by former Superintendent Joy Hofmeister last year.<\/span><\/p>

The previous budget requested about $309 million toward a $5,000 across-the-board pay raise for teachers. Walters\u2019 request cuts that allocation in half to $150 million. And instead of across-the-board raises, he wants extra pay to be based on individual merit \u2014 such as having high evaluation scores or being Nationally Board Certified.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe have to start shifting in education from a blanket socialist concept that everybody gets the same no matter what, and say, you know what, we want student results, that\u2019s what we want,\u201d Walters said at the board meeting. \u201cWe\u2019re going to incentivize that with the way that we pay things in education.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

It would also allocate $100 million to a new line item the superintendent calls Student Proficiency. That money, Walters said, would go toward an instructional coaching network, tutoring support, <\/span>Regional Education Administrative Districts<\/span><\/a>, dyslexia intervention grants and other programs left up to individual districts.<\/span><\/p>

Walters said measures for Student Proficiency success would include NAEP performance scores and scores from Oklahoma state testing, but didn\u2019t provide specific benchmarks.<\/span><\/p>

The full budget presentation <\/span>can be found here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

Walters began the board meeting with <\/span>familiar refrains from his campaign<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe will ensure that indoctrination and CRT are eliminated in our state. We will also make sure that our kids are safe. There will be no boys in the girls\u2019 bathrooms. There will be no pornography in schools,\u201d Walters said. \u201cWe will make sure all of our vendors and the schools are focused on education, and not diversity, equity and inclusion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Public school parent Ashley Daly spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, addressing Walters\u2019 campaign rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cPlease stop calling teachers indoctrinators. Please don\u2019t say that they\u2019re pornography pushers. And please don\u2019t say that they are groomers,\u201d Daly said. \u201cThe teachers I know are selfless, and they are kind. They are not waging a civil war. Are the teachers that you worked with, is that what they were doing?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Daly continued, alluding to the state\u2019s <\/span>passage of HB 1775<\/span><\/a>, which bans teaching students about certain aspects of race or sex.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAnd for the record, I want my daughter to learn about Black history. I want her to learn about Native American history. I want my daughter to learn history based on facts and not feelings. And she will feel uncomfortable,\u201d Daly said. \u201cAnd I am certain she will promise herself that she will never, ever stand for exclusion or violence or cruel words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

In a press conference following the meeting, Walters said state money should be spent on \u201cstudent outcomes\u201d rather than \u201cleft wing indoctrination.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAre we actually investing in things that are meaningful for our kids to get in the workforce?\u201d Walters asked. \u201cOr are we part of a left-wing Biden agenda by pushing indoctrination?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Despite the new budget request, Walters may not get everything on his wish list \u2014 final budget approval is up to the lawmakers to approve during the legislative session.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newly elected State Superintendent Ryan Walters stumped legislators in a budget hearing earlier this week when he said he planned to change the Board of Education\u2019s budget request approved under the previous superintendent.At a Thursday board meeting, Walters\u2019 new numbers were revealed, and overall, it\u2019s about $59 million less than the request approved by former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":35529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,16],"tags":[1507,855,1476,1029],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35527"}],"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\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35533,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35527\/revisions\/35533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}