In recent Okla. protest, rural and urban teachers wanted to increase funding in different ways - Entrepreneur Generations

"Even as they presented unified calls for increased funding, rural and urban educators had starkly different ideas of how to accomplish it, lawmakers said," Janelle Stecklein reports for the Enid News & Eagle in Oklahoma.

During the recent protests for education funding, educators from larger urban districts such as Tulsa and Oklahoma City said new revenue should come through consolidating rural school districts. Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee, a retired teacher and vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, said teachers wanted to reduce the number of districts from more than 500 to 70 or 77. Rural teachers wanted to preserve their school districts, which brought a sense of community to their often agricultural small towns.

Many rural teachers told Ginger Tinney, executive director of the Professional Oklahoma Educators Association, that they're often the highest-paid professionals in their towns, Stecklein reports. That pay disparity could make it hard for rural teachers to demand more money, Tinney said.

Rep. Mike Sanders, R-Kingfisher, said rural teachers tended to be more appreciative of the state legislature's attempts to resolve teachers' demands, and said that although teachers support each other, "Sometimes I wonder whether or not those big organizations really speak for my smaller schools."






from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2qSul7a In recent Okla. protest, rural and urban teachers wanted to increase funding in different ways - Entrepreneur Generations

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