Two Things: #SOTS and Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day!

Yesterday, Governor Mary Fallin gave her State of the State speech to the Oklahoma Legislature. Among other things, she made her education agenda perfectly clear. I’ll address that below in my Tuesday Two Things post. Overall, I found it fitting that Fallin included inher remarks Yogi Berra’s quote, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

First, I have to say that I was impressed by one particular part of the speech. She proposed sensible sentencing reforms for non-violent drug offenders. Oklahoma has overcrowded prisons; this is a long-standing truth. What is also true is the sociology behind these sentences. These lengthy sentences impact minorities and the poor disproportionately. They permanently remove people from the mainstream of society, often before they’re independent adults. I’m all for being tough on dealers and violent criminals. Let’s just not overly penalize people for the mistakes they make when they’re young – especially when the crime is more or less self-abuse.

Here were her suggestions:

• First, let’s allow district attorneys to have the discretion to file any first drug offense as a misdemeanor.
• Next, we lower the mandatory sentence from two to 10 years in prison, to zero to five years in prison.
• For second felony offenses for drug possession, lower the mandatory sentence from two years to life, to zero to 10 years.
• And for third felony offenses for drug possession, lower the mandatory sentence from six years to life with no probation to zero to 15 years.
• For property crimes, let’s raise the value of a felony crime from $500 to $1,000. The $500 benchmark has been in place since 2002, and it needs to be raised. A teen who steals someone’s smartphone today could be branded for life as a felon because smartphones cost more than $500; twenty years ago, most cell phones cost less than $100.

I don’t know if the Legislature will move on this proposal or how much money it will save if they do. I just know that this makes sense in terms of human potential. Unfortunately, that doesn’t provide for a seamless segue to Fallin’s comments on education.

1. Things I liked:

• Fallin proposed $178 million in new money for a permanent $3,000 raise for teachers. If that happens, Oklahoma teacher pay would rise all the way to 44^th in the country. It’s not enough to make our salaries regionally competitive, but it’s at least something. As always, something is better than nothing.

2. Things I didn’t like:

• The 3% funding cut to education prior to the infusion of $178 million in new money. So we’re supposed to go ahead with the cuts we’re trying to absorb and then reward everybody who survives with raises? They’ll need it. Things are going to be tougher on our remaining teacher, for sure. Districts will still have to cut teaching positions to balance budgets.
• Her push for school consolidation. I know she’s only talking about the K-8 districts, but honestly, we don’t really save money through her scheme. It’s just a distraction.
• The flexibility to use district’s building funds for salary. This is great for the districts with high assessed property valuations, but for many districts, there just isn’t a lot of “there” there.
• Her love of A-F Report Cards and the RSA law. These are two failed reforms. Ask teachers and parents what they think of them. Better yet, ask kids.
• As for her “100 percent support” of vouchers, they’re my line in the sand. You can’t say you support them (especially with zero accountability) and also say you support public education. This is all just the ALEC playbook. It shows no original thought. It has nothing to do with Oklahoma values, whatever that really means.

That’s all for now. I’ll spend some more time processing/writing later in the week or over the weekend. In the meantime, here are a few links for you, if you want to read more:

• Text of the governor’s speech
• The governor’s budget proposal
• Superintendent Hofmeister’s response to the teacher raise proposal
• Oklahoma Policy Institute statement on SOTS
• A great poem by e.e. cummings (just because)

And because today is Groundhog Day, I thought you’d enjoy this:

Two Things: Perspectives on 0.25%

1. As the Tulsa World reports this morning, voices of reason are starting to emerge in Oklahoma’s Legislature:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Mazzei said Monday that Oklahoma’s “financial management options” should include suspension of the 0.25 percent reduction in the state income-tax rate that went into effect Jan. 1.

“Given the financial stress the state faces, we should consider a number of financial management options, one of which is a delay in the reduction from 5.25 to 5 percent in the top tax rate,” said Mazzei, R-Tulsa.

Mazzei last week filed Senate Bill 1073, which voids the reduction approved by the state Equalization Board in December 2014 and specifies such a reduction cannot occur in a fiscal year in which a revenue failure has been declared.

SB 1073 also raises the requirements for triggering a rate cut from 5 percent to 4.85 percent.

As those of us who agree with Mazzei keep saying, the tax cut is irresponsible at this time. I’ve heard personally from other legislators who get it.

2. Why wouldn’t you fix part of your problem while you can? Maybe because the Oklahoman says so:

Critics argue the money left in citizens’ hands through tax cuts would be better spent on government. They say increased funding for things such as schools, roads and social services makes a state more attractive to businesses than a low tax rate.

If so, Connecticut should be booming. Instead, since 2010 Connecticut has experienced almost no growth in state gross domestic product.

No doubt, some proponents of higher tax rates will note GE is relocating to Boston. So the company is exiting one high-tax state for another nationally lampooned as “Taxachusetts.” Yet the Tax Foundation ranks Massachusetts’ business climate 25th best in the nation, while Connecticut’s was 44th. In comparison, Oklahoma ranked 33rd.

Clearly, if it’s good for big business, it’s good for the state, right? Just ask all those homeowners in Edmond who are dealing with cracks in their walls. Or maybe ask the drinking water aficionados from Flint, Michigan.

It serves the Oklahoman‘s narrative, though, to frame this as the left wanting to hijack your hard-earned income. Like a Geico commercial, that’s what they do.

I actually agree with the closing paragraph of the editorial, though:

No one should argue that tax rates are the only factor in business location decisions. But it’s a fool’s errand to pretend they’re irrelevant.

It’s true. They also consider the quality of the schools. Schools cost money. That requires some taxation. You can’t have it both ways.

Happy Tuesday, everybody.

Two things for Tuesday

One of my new year’s resolutions is to blog more. Since time is scarce, I’ll try to have a brief post on Tuesdays, in which I briefly touch on two points, and a longer post on the weekend.

1. Today, we welcome back our students. I know that some districts had kids yesterday, but many I know begin the spring semester today.

   In the case of Mid-Del Public Schools, we welcome back about 14,600 students. My friends in Moore, and in many other school districts, are excited to see the kids again too.

   So ready to see my kiddos today! Have a great day #oklaed

   — Amanda Smith (@manders416) January 5, 2016

   For too many of our students, today means a hot meal, a safe place, and a loving adult. With all the talk of gloom and doom and budget cuts, our teachers just want to do their jobs. Hopefully, we can stay out of their way.

2. I can’t tell you how many teachers and administrators in Oklahoma worked over the break, but I know it was more than zero. I know it was a lot. I saw collaboration on Facebook and Twitter. I’m sure if I used Instagram and Pinterest, I would have seen it there too.

   When I was out Christmas shopping at the last minute, I even heard teachers rummaging through clearance items, discussing what could be used in their classroom. And in districts that had professional development yesterday, many were all in, first thing in the morning.

   The point is that teachers may take time off, but their brains don’t. They may be out shopping for their own families, but they don’t stop thinking about the students they will see in no time at all.

   We all deserve time off, and I hope it was good time off. I hope it was refreshing. I hope for those of us who work in the schools, we at least had a few moments that weren’t all about the students during these last two weeks.

   We’re back now, and so are the kids. Let’s have some fun and learn something.