Skip to main content

Education Reforms that Would Do Some Good


Several months ago, 1889 Institute published Education Reforms to Make a Difference in which six fundamental institutional reforms to public education in Oklahoma were suggested. Now we publish More Education Reforms to Make a Difference, which suggests six more reforms.

It’s clear that anything other than relatively fundamental institutional reform in public education is only the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. That ship had some fundamental flaws in its metallurgy, and there were flaws in the incentives of how it was handled. Were these flaws not present, 1,200 people might not have prematurely perished. Were some fundamental changes to Oklahoma’s education system enacted, incentives would fundamentally change, and the system would operate to do a better job of producing well-educated high school graduates. 

Only by weakening public education’s iron triangle (elected officials, union/trade associations, and government bureaucrats) will we get anything like real, positive change in public education that leads to more knowledgeable students graduating from high school ready to succeed in other educational endeavors and the careers of tomorrow. 

Prohibit Collective Bargaining and Pass a Meaningful No-strike Law
Elected officials have a fiduciary duty to ALL taxpayers. However, unionized government employees can effectively “hire” their own employers by participating in low-turnout elections, for which school board elections are notorious. Due to the problem of divided loyalty that government-employee collective bargaining creates, several states explicitly prohibit collective bargaining for teachers, including Texas, often cited as a state that pays teachers relatively well.

Incredibly, it is considered legal behavior if local boards declare the schools closed and allow teachers to be absent to protest at the state capitol for higher pay and benefits. This is what happened in 2018, when school boards turned teachers loose to protest at the state capitol. Family lives and the educations of students were interrupted statewide. This loophole needs closing.

Make the State Superintendent of Public Instruction an Appointed Office
Oklahoma’s state governance model in public education is the same as that adopted by only eight other states (AZ, CA, GA, ID, IN, MT, NC, and ND). This recommendation to have the Governor appoint the Superintendent of Public Instruction has much more to do with appearance and unity of governance than education quality.

An elected state schools superintendent is far more likely than one appointed to narrowly construe their constituency to the public education industry, especially teacher unions, administrator organizations, and school board associations. Within just the last several years, the Superintendent of Public Instruction has been embroiled in controversy over a Political Action Committee and has sided with unions in the 2018 highly disruptive teacher strike. Neither would have been issue with an appointed superintendent.

Transfer School Performance Review Responsibilities to the Lt. Governor
The Oklahoma School Performance Review (OSPR) is patterned on the Texas School Performance Review (TSPR), originally overseen by that state’s Office of the Comptroller, a statewide elected position. The TSPR was a newsmaker as long as an elected official was in charge. The incentive was to make it as effective as possible in order to earn unassailable praise.

Right now Oklahoma’s Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (OEQA) oversees the OSPR. The OEQA’s board consists mostly of public education industry insiders, perhaps intended as a way to be sure real expertise is included. However, it also creates potential conflicts of interest in favor of the system and over taxpayers.

Prioritize Early College High School
Why limit concurrent enrollment to only juniors and seniors? Why limit free-tuition hours to only eighteen only for seniors? Given the advent online resources, college-bound high school graduates should be able to earn an associate’s degree (60 college credit hours) by the time they have completed high school, with no additional cost to themselves or to taxpayers. In fact, there is potential for savings.

The following changes to Oklahoma’s dual credit/concurrent enrollment system are recommended:
  • Require high schools to establish on-campus resources for online college courses such as tutoring and technology,
  • Require districts to establish cost-effective online college course offerings and allow students to earn as many credits as they wish, especially if such credits can be earned more cheaply than today’s regular public school classroom, a distinct possibility,
  • Set a goal that every college-bound high school student will graduate with an associate’s degree (60 college credit hours), without extra public expense and without parents/students incurring expense,
  • Allow private college/university participation in the free-tuition program where they are willing to accept state subsidies as low as afforded to public institutions,
  • Eliminate the geographic service area restriction with respect to online courses.
Means-Test Pre-kindergarten
Establishing a universal pre-k program is clearly premature without having first established excellence in teaching early grades. There is conflicting evidence over whether pre-k actually accomplishes anything over the long term for participating children. Even the latest positive study shows that positive impacts only last if children continue to have high-quality teachers every single year. This only begs the question of why we are focusing resources on pre-k before we have established high quality instruction in all grades.

Pre-k should be limited to families whose children are truly eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program and true English language learners.

Ensure Accurate Reporting of Funding-weighted Student Populations
The numerical weights that accrue with certain children in the school funding formula provide an incentive for districts to over-report students who meet certain characteristics in order to game the system for more money. This dishonesty, however, sees some districts effectively stealing from those that are honest, since appropriations for a given year are fixed. Some districts are taking bigger pieces of the pie than they deserve.

Over 60 percent of Oklahoma’s school children are claimed eligible for free/reduced price lunches. These children are weighted more heavily in the funding formula system, meaning more money flows to districts with higher free/reduced price lunch eligibility counts. Eligibility is limited to households at or below 185 percent of poverty. Official statistics show only 49 percent of Oklahoma’s children are below 200 percent of poverty, which means the number of children eligible for free/reduced price lunches in Oklahoma should be less than 49 percent of all school children. Clearly, more children are considered eligible than should be. Some districts are over counting.

English language learners are also over-counted, as indicated by statistics regarding Hispanics in the state. Children so counted also mean enhanced funding to their districts. 

Therefore, to counteract the incentive to over count, careful audits should be conducted. Additionally, parents should be required to show evidence of their claimed low income when applying for free/reduced price lunch eligibility or at least required to sign a sworn statement under penalty of perjury.

Byron Schlomach is 1889 Institute Director and can be contacted at bschlomach@1889institute.org. 

Popular posts from this blog

How Oklahoma Can Be Number One in Covid Policy

South Dakota, that sound you hear behind you is footsteps. Oklahoma can be Number One in the policy response to Covid-19. We’ve done fairly well to this point compared to other states, but to take us to the top, our leaders will need good, accurate information, must ignore hyperbole (often outright falsehoods) from the media-politico controversy machine, and should trust individual Oklahomans to do what is best for themselves and their families. Oh, and it would help to have some courage in the face of criticism (or ear plugs to tune out the whining). Fortunately, 1889 Institute has compiled a very helpful webpage containing the cold, hard facts about SARS-CoV-2. Based on these facts, not hysteria and virtue signaling, we recommend some straightforward policy responses. The page is here for anyone who wants to arm themselves with knowledge, rather than bask in the newly virtuous habit of broadcasting how afraid and ignorant one is. For example, did you know that the evidence for wid...
Read more

Corporate Welfare is not OK

Largely buried under the constant barrage of COVID-19 news and the baffling decision by the Supreme Court to declare half of Oklahoma "Indian Country," was Oklahoma’s and Tulsa’s attempt to bribe Tesla to locate a new facility in that city. Tesla chose Austin, Texas instead, a decision Tesla likely made months ago, but for the opportunity Oklahoma's bid provided for milking as much as possible in concessions (bribery) from Austin. Thus, it may well be a blessing in disguise that Tesla chose Austin over Tulsa. After all, Oklahomans aren't on the hook to pay off a big corporation that is perfectly capable of financially taking care of itself. What's more, consider what might have happened if the deal had been made and ground had been broken before the McGirt decision. Tesla likely would have had to pull out of the deal, and might well have sued the state for bad faith negotiating, which have reflected poorly on Tulsa and Oklahoma.   One study estimates corporations...
Read more

Present Reforms to Keep the Ghost of State Questions Past from Creating Future Headaches

Oklahoma, like many western states, allows its citizens to directly participate in the democratic process through citizen initiatives and referendums. In a referendum, the legislature directs a question to the people — usually to modify the state constitution, since the legislature can change statutes itself. An initiative requires no legislative involvement, but is initiated by the people via signature gathering, and can be used to modify statute or amend the constitution. Collectively, the initiatives and referendums that make it onto the ballot are known as State Questions.   Recently, there have been calls to make it more difficult to amend the constitution. At least two proposals are being discussed. One would diversify the signature requirement by demanding that a proportional amount of signatures come from each region of the state. The other would require a sixty percent majority to adopt a constitutional amendment rather than the fifty percent plus one currently in place. ...
Read more

Undo 802

Why is it that when conservatives suffer a major loss, they give up, accept the new status quo, and fall back to the next retreat position? When progressives suffer a major loss, they regroup and try again. And again. Until they finally wheedle the American public into giving in. I propose a change in strategy. The Oklahoma Legislature should make undoing State Question 802 its top legislative priority for 2021. This will not be an easy task (legislators seem to prefer avoiding difficult tasks) but it is a critical one. The normal legislative process, with all its pitfalls and traps for the unwary, will only bring the topic to another vote of the people. So why spend so much political capital and effort if the same result is possible? Three reasons.   First is the disastrous consequences of the policy. Forget that it enriches already-rich hospital and pharmaceutical executives. Forget that it gives the state incentives to prioritize the nearly-poor covered by expansion over the...
Read more