In times of unprecedented educational blight in the State of Oklahoma, the arrogance of our elected officials to viciously attack award-winning teachers is appalling. How quickly they shifted the focus away from their own indiscretions!
Just last May, News on 6 reporter, Amy Lester, led an investigation into the reckless abuse of several of our state senators’ and representatives’ professional privileges: When state agencies faced 5 percent cuts, some senate staffers did their part to resolve the matter by taking trips. In September, President Pro Tempore, Senator Glenn Coffee offered no objections when his administrative assistant and the majority legislative director spent $2,392.73 to attend a conference in Austin, TX to learn how to become better staffers. When Lester asked Coffee if this was appropriate to OK while state agencies were struggling, he said, “I think that you still have to function. You still have to train individuals and create opportunities for them to do well in their jobs, and so yes, I think it is.”
While school districts across the state have been forced to eliminate all travel to equally beneficial training opportunities our leaders (ahem! Earl Garrison, Brian Bingman, et al.) deem it necessary to stay in the Ritz Carleton and take limousine rides when they attend similar junkets. Where’s the accountability? “While Coffee approves the travel, he never makes sure senators attend the conferences while out of town. ‘What a member chooses to do with their time away, that is on them and on their conscience what they do,’ Coffee [says].” Meanwhile, educators willingly wade through practical protocol and dutifully jump through ever-shifting paradigmatic hoops to maintain a certifiable level of expertise—all in accordance with a battery of checks and balances that guarantee their accountability. As hearty a salary as these officials approve for themselves (incidentally, the highest average in our region in sharp contrast to our educators’ lowest) is it so outrageous for their constituents to insist on some transparent conservatism?
Oklahoma educators not only have to FUNCTION but, are EXPECTED to continually IMPROVE at the same time our budgets are being slashed. This award-winning educator is tired of carrying these “pro-education” officials on my back. I won’t forget November 2, YES on 744!
http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12518615
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griffin/NEWS9/PDF/1005/Invoice.pdf
