In this first ad from Joe Dorman, Candidate for Oklahoma Governor, he discusses his Plan to Fix Education which is broken in all but a few districts in Oklahoma.
"Classrooms First" Education Plan: Phase One & Two
I've been a tireless advocate for Oklahoma’s schools, fighting against unfunded mandates and ill-advised cuts to funding for our most valuable resources – teachers and students.
One size fits all education standards that promote testing over learning simply don’t work in Oklahoma. The reality is that Oklahoma currently ranks 48th in teacher pay with the nation’s largest cuts in per student spending - 22.8%. How can we compete when our schools are saddled with more and more unfunded mandates that increase requirements while slashing funding?
We are trusting our schools to prepare the next generation for an economy and a world that is more connected than ever before – all with fewer and fewer resources. It’s time for less common core and more common sense in our education policy.
I’ll invest in education. Our teachers, our students, our state deserve better. We have to provide adequate resources to eliminate overcrowded classrooms. I will continue to be a champion for public education – working across the aisle to raise the salaries for our teachers, because the job of educating Oklahoma kids shouldn’t require financial sacrifice at home.
Together we will put our schools on the path towards a 21st century classroom and ensure that Oklahoma schools are the best in the nation.
Education is my #1 priority which made the decision to support Joe Dorman very easy. Education has been important to me since my daughter first attended kindergarten years ago as I started volunteering in the classrooms to tutor reading when she was in first grade and for the next 18 years volunteered countless in schools in various districts due to transfers. Worst thing I ever did was agree to become President of the PTO -- worst job I ever had including paid -- couldn't please anyone in the district so when the transfer to Texas popped up, started celebrating I couldn't run again as I announced immediately I couldn't run again as we were moving. The principal told me that was the happiest announcement of a move he had ever seen but it was also the only time someone used moving not to serve a second year and laughed. Told him worst job ever!
NH and MA schools were the worst schools my children attended followed closely by a district in Ohio, then would rate Boerne, Texas, much better along with Yucaipa, but none of those districts came close to the education that the kids received in Norman, OK. Would give them a 5-star rating because from the School Board to the Superintendent, Principals and Teachers it is all about giving our children and grandchildren a first rate education. Norman is noted for passing school bonds to improve our schools over the objections of the conservatives here who are outnumbered in this more progressive community.
Every child in Oklahoma should have the same education children receive in Norman which is rated one of the top school systems in the Nation.
With a Governor Joe Dorman, we will get that across Oklahoma because he will be tenacious in his fight for all Oklahoma children so they can get the same education the ones in school districts like Norman, Jenks or Broken Arrow for starters are getting. Our small districts need more resources and help as our public schools for the most part are broken in rural Oklahoman.
The very fact that the Republican Legislature has been cutting funding for schools every year since 2008 ranking Oklahoma #1 in cuts to education since then and our teachers #48 in salaries from #49 before they received a raise for the first time in years shouts Republicans are worried. Rep Joe Dorman decides to run for Governor and all of a sudden the Republicans found some money to increase school funding so we are now at what we should have been in 2009 after the Legislature started their cuts in 2008. Then Barresi, State School Superintendent, announced a pay raise for teachers -- didn't do her any good as she came in 3rd in the primary and my main reason to stay a Republican in order to vote her out in the primary. The switch happens on 1 September for me!
Oklahoma needs to fix our public schools and STOP spending money on Charter Schools backed by ALEC Governor Fallin, the State School Superintendent Janet Barresi who was defeated in the primary, and Jeb Bush of Florida who is thinking of running for President in 2016. When Bush visited Oklahoma, he toured a charter school with Fallin and Barresi. That did not go over well as Charter Schools don't operate under the same standards as public schools.
If Oklahoma is going to have really good public schools for all of its students, then we need to elect Jor Dorman as Governor along with sending more Democrats to the Legislature. Oklahomans need to rise up and say NO to ALEC sponsored legislation along with the ALEC puppets in Oklahoma like Governor Fallin! It is time to fix Oklahoma education NOW before it gets even worse! Please support Joe Dorman to be our next Oklahoma Governor!
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