A bill aimed at giving educators statewide a $5,000 annual raise failed in the Oklahoma House of Representatives last week, causing student teachers on Oklahoma Christian University’s campus to question state leaders.
Known as Step Up Oklahoma, the proposal would have generated over $700 million in additional state revenue through increased taxes on cigarettes, gasoline and the energy industry. Sixty-three of 98 house members voted in favor of the bill, falling short of the 75 percent threshold needed to pass a tax hike in Oklahoma.
Senior education major Allee Pipes said she was disappointed by the news. Especially since, she said her appreciation for the work teachers do on a daily basis has grown since she started student teaching last January.
“It just makes us feel like we aren’t valued in Oklahoma,” Pipes said. “They’re not paying us enough to want to stay.”
Democrats in the house were among the most staunch opponents of Step Up Oklahoma, with just 10 of 28 voting yes to the bill. The Oklahoma Democratic Party released a statement following the decision, saying the bill was unbalanced and Republicans were targeting lower-income citizens.
“While the House Democratic Caucus had members on both sides of the vote today, we are unified in our belief that the bill presented today was far from equitable and left unaddressed many of our state’s needs,” the statement said. “This bill sought to mend some of our state’s problems with taxes that asked working families to pay more while asking very little of those at the top and the oil & gas industry.”
Step Up Oklahoma was the second recent attempt to raise state teacher salaries, which have remained stagnant since 2006. In November 2016, 59 percent of Oklahoma voters decided against State Question 779, a proposed constitutional amendment to raise the statewide sales tax by one cent and generate around $600 million dollars earmarked for education and teacher raises.
Oklahoma currently ranks last in the U.S. in annual teacher salary at $42,460, with starting salaries beginning at $31,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In neighboring North Texas, many districts have begun offering first-year teachers starting salaries of at least $50,000.
Pipes said she and many in the education department are now considering taking teaching jobs outside of Oklahoma due to the discrepancy in salary.
“If I end up staying here, I will end up taking a $10,000 pay difference than if I were to go Texas,” Pipes said. “I’m not in it for the money, but when you have student loans, $10,000 is a lot. I don’t even have a family—there are a lot of people who are having to leave Oklahoma, because they can’t support their families on a teacher pay scale.”
According to Pipes, the impact of low school funding in Oklahoma has gone beyond low teacher salaries. She said class sizes are growing at an unprecedented rate, and some teachers in the state are now losing benefits which were once considered standard.
“I have 30 kids in my class,” Pipes said. “Whenever you add more kids, it’s harder to control, and fourth graders are just bigger so there are more bodies. I also know of smaller districts around here where if you need to take a day off, you have to pay for your substitute out of pocket, because they just don’t have money for subs.”
As of Feb. 19, nearly 3,000 people had signed a Change.org petition calling for Oklahoma teachers to stage a walkout in protest of low salaries.
“Teachers in Oklahoma need a raise of $10,000 per year to be competitive regionally,” the petition said. “Our neighbor states are paying much more and luring away our best talent.”
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