Moore Talks Education Before Tuesday Primary

Will never get to the top without a plan…

How about an Education plan?  We spend $6.575 Billion dollars and some people want us to

“fully” fund Education?  Where is the money we collect going now, and are we achieving the goals and

outcomes we set for our state?

If we need more money, how can we justify increasing taxes?

Oklahomans want the best opportunities for their children.  Our current education system is so

tangled up we don’t seem to have one leader, one legal authority to provide the vision and leadership

necessary to get us to the kind of success we all want for our state.

Strip down Education to the core.  Get back to the basics.  Conduct a “Zero Based Budget.”

Embed an auditor from the State Auditor’s office and rotate them annually.

Consolidate locations and administration.  Decide on the amount of students per district or per county

like Oklahoma has had in the past.

K-8 Independent districts must allow money to follow graduates to their high school.

According to the State Department of Education we have 51,000 English Language Learners in our

school systems.  The Daily Oklahoman said we have 15,000 in the OKCPS.

At $10,000 per year, minimally, we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on out of staters,

to the detriment of our states’ children.  Many more teachers are required as well as schools, and

all that goes with them.

We must be reimbursed for the negligence of the federal government to defend our borders.

English Language Learners here legally should be placed in English Immersion classes so they

may learn the language of commerce and success within these United States.  Any out of district

students are required to pay tuition according to the Education Law Handbook.

Start with an Education Summit.  Communicate we are seeking solutions and will illustrate what is working

and what we need to change.  Some topics might be:

Are we using technology to achieve efficiency and cost savings?

Are buses the best answer for getting kids to school in every school district?

What outcomes do we want for children?

What will we consider a success or failure?

How do we constantly learn and adjust without completely starting from scratch on curriculum?

Determine the different positions of authority and how to streamline decision making.

What is role of the parent in preparing a child for academic success?

Before we ask for any more money we must see how the current resources

are being spent.  Reform the education budget process to be more transparent and open.

School budgeting should illustrate to taxpayers and families how to do a budget in a

frugal, common sense manner and prioritizes the needs of the community, state and nation.

More daylight will cleanse the process.

Fund the classroom teachers so we can attract and retain quality professionals.

Pay National Board Certified teachers the $5,000 we were paying before the Recession.

Teachers should have a stipend for classroom expenses.

Fund classrooms at 65% of the money for Education.  The current average is around 46%.

School Boards and Administrators should determine teacher and staff pay based on standards set by

the community.  The buck stops at the local level.  Local taxpayers pay nearly half of the money spent on

education and should have more say in how the money is spent.  School boards should have more

autonomy over spending and how to meet or exceed standards agreed upon at the State level.

Citizens want American values, to include a love for our creator, to be taught in our public schools.

Discipline, respect for authority and love of country should be the building blocks of our combined

effort to lead the nation in education quality.

Oklahoma’s Education standards should be aimed at achieving Top 10 status nationally.

We must aim higher.

It is time to get Oklahomans pulling in the same direction when it comes to Education.

Respectfully,

Lewis Moore

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