The Importance Of Education In Education

In the state the lower class Texan is currently at right now, the state of Texas provides minimal funding to schools in low income areas. Texas currently spends an average of $8,998 per student; the national average for education is $11,674 ranking Texas 46th in educational spending among the 50 states and the District of Columbia (Stutz, 2014). However, despite the continuous debates on television and radio, the topic of funding education in Texas has been a problem since 1973 with little to no improvements as prior to the legislative session of 2013, Texas ranked 49th in educational spending among the states (Stutz, 2014). Furthermore, despite what ex-governor Rick Perry might state, Texas’ education is not a “…national leader in education reform and student achievement.” (Perry, 2011) It is a real problem the American people need to address.

What will Oklahoma look like in 2040, will we be thriving in student education or will we even have an education program for Oklahoma students to thrive in? Oklahoma is already ranked 48th overall in education, what does the future entail if we don’t start trying to build our education system back up. Teacher salaries in the state of Oklahoma are a hot issue right now and need to be discussed. Low teacher salaries don’t just affect teachers they have a huge impact on students and their education. The people of Oklahoma don’t want to raise their taxes to increase teacher salaries but something must change for the future and sake of Oklahoma’s education system.

Many of the other financing problems come from individual districts that some times misuse money that could be used to better the quality of education. Assistant Attorney General Shelly Dahlberg, said that individual districts must also “show they are spending their money efficiently”. Superintendents spend too much on items that they seem to prioritize such as iPads and equipment for the sports departments and other extracurricular activities that aren’t required by the state. At times, they also base their teacher pay on seniority rather than student performance. If Texas were to stop overemphasizing on the local control of its school districts and were to hold individual districts responsible for not spending their money efficiently, there would be a lot less shortcomings and a lot more money directed into bettering the

In taking a brief look at the Oklahoma education system, one need not look far before issues of significant underfunding and understaffing come directly into view. Many different proposals regarding what Oklahoma needs to do to resolve this problem have been suggested in the past, but very few of these proposals outline an answer regarding how these fixes will be implemented. How Oklahoma's educational system can increase the effectiveness of its limited funding is something that can be addressed with simple cost-effective steps and strategies that have proven their effectiveness in other states. Additionally, the issue of understaffing can be looked at from a fresh perspective in order to understand what the Oklahoma education system can do to bring in new teachers and keep these teachers. Finally, in joining with national-level movements and interest groups such as the National Education Association which can help with budgetary issues and Teach for America which can help to bring in new, trained and enthusiastic teachers into areas of Oklahoma that have seen poor performance from students in the past.

As somebody who has experienced the Oklahoma Education System first hand, I have came to the conclusion that it needs to be improved drastically. There were countless times that teachers just played a documentary instead of getting up and teaching the students and touching the children’s hearts. This might be due to them just being lazy, or the teachers feeling that they are not valued under the current system that was in place in Oklahoma. I believe that the teachers of Oklahoma should be valued highly due to the fact that they are the people who create doctors, scientists, politicians, and inventors. They need to be valued up there among the doctors and scientists and treated like it. This will raise test scores in children that usually do

     High school teachers’ average salary varies across the world. The United States is said to be one of the richest countries in the world, yet our teachers are being paid one of the lowest amounts. The Education Intelligence Agency, author of the article “Ohio Teacher Overcomes Union’s Tolerance” published an International Teacher Salary Report ranking the fifty states by “how much the average salary exceeded per capita personal income.” According to the Education Intelligence Agency Ohio’s percentage rate is only fifty- five point one percent. According to the Education Intelligence Agency the lowest state percentage is in South Dakota at twenty- three point six percent and the highest state percentage is

Does Oklahoma want to make the people with the biggest impact on the state’s children’s futures, and thus the future of its communities, struggle to get by day to day? Gina Cattaneo, a teacher at Tulsa Central High School, was recently interviewed by Janna Clark of Fox23 about the struggles of teachers to make ends meet. Cattaneo is a divorced mother of 2 who earns approximately $2,155 a month but after all her household bills are paid, she is left with roughly $268 a month for food, gas, clothing and doctor bills. (Clark). Cattaneo loves her job and does not want to find another job but she feels, “The state needs to come up with a plan…so we can have a lifestyle that we’re not constantly stressed and struggling.” (Clark). Other teachers have had to take on other part time jobs in order to make ends meet. For example, Summer Lyons, a four- year Pre-K teacher in Tulsa, earns $34,100 a year but works an additional 15 hours each weekend at a Chinese restaurant to make ends meet. (Robson). Lyons has considered moving to New York because the average teacher salary there is $75,279 and she feels the extra $31,000 each year would offset the cost of living differences. (Robson). Summer Lyons is a great example of a good teacher feeling underappreciated and looking at options out of state. Teachers significantly enhance the future of our state yet most Oklahomans do not realize the struggles teachers make each day in trying provide students their best education while worrying about how to pay their basic

Oklahoma is ranked forty eighth in the U.S for average teacher’s salary with $44,373 (“Oklahoma Teachers Salary”). That’s not good for the state of Oklahoma. I believe teachers are the heart and soul of this state and country. If it weren’t for teachers there would be no doctors, lawyers, or even congress members. According to Matthew J. Brouillette, “Doctors, lawyers, and engineers can practice their profession in variety of ways. They can be employed by organizations, they can partner with others, or they can work themselves in private practice. School teachers lack such essential choices” (Brouillette). Teachers under go to much just to get paid

In 2016, South Dakota compared to other states in the Union, ranked fifty-first in teacher pay (Heidelberger). Which means that South Dakota educators have lower salaries than any other state. It is not a new problem for educators though as South Dakota has ranked last in teacher salary for some time. The payment of teachers in South Dakota’s public school has been debated for a great amount of time. Several things that the legislators encountered while creating this legislation are talked about by Deborah Stone in her book Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making. Policy goals, problems, and tools are all talked about by Stone and can be applied to South Dakota’s House Bill 1182.

The starting salary of teachers in Oklahoma is about $31,600 (Doney). That is pretty crazy right? Teachers change the world daily by preparing people for life but imagine a world without teachers. How would individuals learn? Would people retain information told to them from a computer? Would computers give you the same life lessons teachers give you? The biggest “emergency” in Oklahoma has come down to teachers (Doney). The demand for teachers has just gone up and up over the past few years and schools seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. This essay will analyze the causes, effects, and preventions of low paid teachers in Oklahoma.

School districts experience changes in educations on a regular basis. Some of these changes occur as a result of local, state, and/or federal issues. One way to prepare for local changes that are related to revenue and expenditures is to stay informed. Attending school board, PTA, and city council meetings is a good way to stay informed on what is occurring in your local area. The problem of financing education once, considered the responsibility of only a few specialist with vested interests in the schools—boards of education, school administrators, state departments of education, and state legislatures—developed into a priority item for virtually all citizens. (Brimley 2008) All

Oklahoma as of today is ranked 49th nationally in per-pupil expenditures and ranked 48th in teacher pay (Klein 2). Putting Oklahoma as one of the worst states to be educated in the United States. “Oklahoma is consistently ranked near the bottom for education funding and teacher pay” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth And Job Creation” 3). When there are state cuts that need to be made, the departments of education are one of the first that usually tend to suffer. Since the 2008 economic crisis, Oklahoma has continued to cut the budget for education; even though the economy has since then gotten better (Perry). Budget cuts in education affect all parts of the education process for the students. “Some school districts have ordered teacher layoffs and shorter sessions” (“Oklahoma Makes the Poor Poorer” par 4).Schools are now struggling to keep their heads above water. Each year from the budget cutting, schools have had to lay off teachers, cut entire programs, and have limited resources used to educate the students. Even the teachers’ retirement system is suffering, being one of the top poorly funded pension programs nationally (Ash par 3). Seeing as that the schools have to cut down classes and programs, administration has had no other choice than to increase class size, overwhelming teachers tremendously. “Oklahoma has 1,500 fewer classroom teachers and 40,000 more students since 2008-2009” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth

Teachers have and will always have a big impact in everyone’s life and if not everyone, well, at least they did for me. They teach you everything you need to know about a subject and valuable life lessons, so why are they not paid sufficiently enough to make a decent living? Teachers salaries have always been low and I believe it is the time that changes. Being a lawyer, doctor, or engineer is great, but none of that would be possible without the insight of a teacher, I will inform you in this paper on why I believe there is a need for action. I will go over the background of teacher’s salaries, my ideas on what would be best for teachers not just in Texas, but nationwide, and pros and cons on the issues and ideas at hand.

According to the Lexington Herald Leader, in Kentucky the state is to cut their budget by 17.4 percent, which is $69.5 million dollars of their $4-billion-dollar budget. It may seem like a lot of money, but the spending for schools keeps going up when the funding goes down (Valarie Honeycutt Spears). “While the proposed amount is less than the request, 173 school districts rely on state education funding to provide Kentucky’s 655,000 public school students with their constitutionally guaranteed education, and any additional reductions jeopardize the ability of districts to provide that education,” says Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt. Four billion dollars may seem like a lot of money but with over 655,000 schools to fund $69.5 million dollars is so much money gone. Schools are going to have to start cutting the smaller things like fine arts budgets first; before they

Thesis Statement: Oklahoma schools are now in desperate need of teachers; however, these positions are hard to fill because Oklahoma public school teachers are among the lowest paid teachers in the nation. To correct this issue, we must realize what is the problem, what caused the problem, and what is the best way to fix the problem.