Our public teachers in Oklahoma have walked out of their classrooms and have been marching on our Capitol in Oklahoma City demanding that our legislature restore funding for education both teacher salaries and general funding for schools and supplies.
Our Governor, Mary Fallin and the Republican Party are running scared. Fallin claims that ANTIFA is behind the protest and has stayed away from the teachers to hang out with oil billionaires at Oklahoma City Thunder Games. The legislative leadership insists that many of the protesters are paid from out of state. We have a situation where our representatives are scared of the citizens they are supposed to represent.
I ran across these folks here in Tulsa. They are teachers, parents, and children. They are getting paid with horn honks by supportive passing motorists.
I think the people of Oklahoma have had enough. The last ten years or so, the state has entered this grand experiment led by a combination of Christian Dominists and Tea Partiers who have done all they can to defund schools and lower taxes with the promise of everlasting prosperity. The experiment has failed, just as it has in Kansas, Louisiana, and other places.
They have frittered their time away by eliminating restrictions on guns, installing Ten Commandments statues on public property that had to be removed later, passing unconstitutional abortion laws and in general just wasting time, money and energy. Now they are being called to account for all that and that is making them scared and angry. We are seeing the ugly face of entitlement from many of our representatives.
Oklahoma had a long history of populism way back when and I always wondered what happened to it. Maybe it is coming back?
Politics sure are complicated sometimes, full of red tape and silly ideas. I don’ t know how teachers do it though.
It has always been a travesty that our teachers are paid so poorly – how can we expect to compete on the world stage if we are not willing to invest in education?
So glad the teachers are speaking up. We all should. Enough of this BS. Time to vote them out.
I sure hope it (populism) is coming back to your State … you’ve got a right mess there for sure. Glad to hear you acknowledge it and hope other thinking people will do so too*. Honk and wave at the teachers for us!! I hope they triumph sooner rathe than later for the children’s sake, for theirs and for our society.
*We need more thinking people nationally too — not to single out OK. Look at who we have in the WH.
As a grandfather to a soon to be teacher in Arkansas, I do indeed hope that the people continue to speak their mind, loud and clear. Teachers have been underpaid and under appreciated for decades. Granted, the landscape has changed, with special education, after school care etc. that have been added to the educational system, but funding should have been provided from the beginning. The one thing that Oklahoma has in it’s favor it term limits.
On the national stage the President is limited to two terms, but congress can serve forever. Wonder who wrote those rules? Term limits is the only way to truly “Drain the swamp” on both sides of the aisle. Have a great week Yogi.