MEDIA STATEMENT
Our Children Deserve Better!
- The following statement can be attributed to Oklahoma PTA President Brenda Heigl.
February 8, 2016:
Our children deserve better. For the past few years, Oklahoma PTA has been using that phrase when calling out legislative issues, such as the lack of funding for education and its consequences.
One thing that separates our association from a majority of elected leaders in our state: we are in our public schools each and every day. We know what is happening to our schools. So, when legislators point fingers at our administrators and teachers, calling them the problem, it is infuriating.
We watch our members trying to make up for lost funding. When there is no money to pay for an art teacher, our members volunteer to teach it. Our mothers, fathers and grandparents make up for the lack of teaching assistants by volunteering to read with students-often the only way one-on-one attention can be given in our bulging classrooms.
We watch our teachers. We see them after school, working on lesson plans, grading papers, calling or emailing parents. We see them working a second job to pay the bills and buy things for their classroom.
We watch our administrators. They know the name of every student that passes them by. We see their anguish, desperate for new technology for their classrooms and professional development for their staff. We see their exhaustion when faced with mountains of mandated reporting that no one really cares about, or that does much to impact our children's education.
We watch our legislators. They refuse to restore any education funding that was lost during the Great Recession, even when oil prices were at record highs. We watch as they ignore two years of public outcry, even after we stood at the steps of the State Capitol seeking funding for education and increased teacher pay. We watch as legislators throw away opportunities to decrease state-mandated testing. We now hear our congressmen blaming low oil prices, pointing a finger and telling us that is why schools can't be helped. We know better.
We're watching this legislative session, knowing it is going to be rough on public education.
The last thing we need is further loss of funding because of vouchers (currently titled the more friendly sounding "Education Savings Accounts"). But then it happened, one more gut-wrenching blow to those of us desperately working to benefit all children, not just the privileged few.
We watched as Governor Mary Fallin addressed the 55th Legislature. We listened to her say: "
I'm 100 percent supportive of Education Savings Accounts. 100 percent." We dropped our heads in sadness and shame.
Our children deserve better.
Public education must be a priority as decisions are made within our capitol. Join with Oklahoma PTA's thousands of members in this rallying cry. We cannot afford to be defeated. Our children deserve better!
Join us by calling your representative, your senator, your governor. Tell each one of them: ESA is NOT OK! Our children deserve better!
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