School’s Out

There’s the joke about the blonde politician, who asks the voter what she could do to earn his support. The voter says stop pandering and stand for principles…To which the blonde pol replies: Sure, I’ll stop him, but first tell me where to find the principles so I can get the standing out of the way. Er, yea.

Point is, GOP majorities in legislatures across the country, more likely comprised of overweight white men with no need for a comb, have taken slavish indulgence of their bases’ least charitable or community-centric impulses to an art form during the last decade.

Rationalized at the altar of supply-side economics, whittled down to the local level, one GOP dominated flyover House after another has delivered tax relief at the expense of revenue necessary for luxuries their communities can slim down from…like a quality education for their children.

Local chambers of commerce and generous campaign donors, not to mention Fox/AM, have created a political climate where public education is brimming with punching bags – unions, lefty teachers bent on indoctrination, mooching immigrants and welfare princes…even mandated healthier lunch menus. Why should more hard earned tax dollars go to such a cesspool? Better to “give it back” to those who know best how to spend it. Bloomin Onions for all!

Oklahoma teachers- Oklahoma! – finally had enough, and following the example of West Virginia brethren – another state at the bottom of the list for teacher compensation – walked off the job. Governor Mary Fallin, a Fox/AM caricture, was quick to ladle from the Shit River troth in her reaction, likening public servants, many pushed to poverty’s edge by answering their calling, to a “teenaged kid demanding a new car.” To which one striker replied she would settle for being able to afford repairs on her 14-year old Chevy,

Oklahoma’s political graft drug of choice is energy subsidies. The adequate education of children has never stood a chance versus T Boone Pickens et al. The state that burdened DC with James Inhofe wears its priorities on its sleeve. So while near half a billion dollars in various forms of creative tax relief has been bestowed on the state’s energy sector, Oklahoma teachers average $41,380 per year…dead last in the nation.

Of course the disgrace in Oklahoma, aside from a Governor who accuses strikers of being pawns of Antifa, is that it has so many parents utterly indifferent to their children being served such a measley slice of the budget pie. Strikers, to a person, profess the sorry state of the educational system, from antiquated supplies and underfunded programs to 4-day school weeks in a quarter of the state’s schools, as every bit the reason for the walk out as compensation. In fact, adjusted for inflation, the Oklahoma school budget has actually lost 30 percent during the last decade. Meanwhile, the latest Oklahoma Business Incentives and Tax Guide is a full 75 pages of giveaways, Christmas in April.

But nobody seems to mind. Scandals of Darwin supplanting Jesus in the classroom get far more mileage than band club being canceled for lack of funds. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…if it is broke, ignore it. Striking teachers demanded a modest $50 million in additional education funding. To put that in perspective, before the strike the GOP dominated legislature was working to ram through a $120 million dollar package of capital gains deductions, tabled after the walkout. Still, Gov. Fallin made clear they weren’t going to force her to be decent when she signed a set of hotel/motel tax breaks, adding to the revenue shortfall. That’ll show em.

The strike was eventually settled, largely because the teachers accepted less. Fallin and the legislature grudgingly gave a $6000/year raise to full-time teachers, while agreeing NOT to sabotage revenue streams that were previously targeted. Of course the GOP messaging, fully informed by Fox/AM and Trumpism, boasted of “standing on principle” against the wannabe communists. Teacher’s Union leadership, for their part, admitted they settled for less but simply conceded they owed it to the kids to get back on the job.

The silver lining? Teachers are going to put parents to the test by running for office. As filing deadlines approached, more than 100 teachers or former educators were slated to run largely single issue campaigns, hoping to take GOP incumbents to task. How parents will respond in the voting booth could transform the state’s political calculus. One thing is certain; Oklahoma’s business and energy fat cats have 75 pages worth of goodies to defend, and they could teach a class on how to do so. BC