On behalf of the Executive Board of the Oklahoma City Building Administrators (OCBA), we support our Teacher colleagues in their effort to advance a budget, or promote legislation, that would increase funding for schools and increase salaries for certified school personnel.
In a survey of our building Principals, 76 percent of respondents supported a job action, in the form of cancelling classes if necessary, in order to elicit a change from our state legislature who, in the last decade, have been unable or unwilling to fully fund public education. In doing so, legislators have not only created a teacher shortage crisis in the state of Oklahoma but have also devalued the education profession to the point where educators and their supporters across the state now see no recourse but to bring us to the brink of school closures statewide. This is an action of last resort.
As building Principals, it is our duty to provide the resources necessary for Teachers to give the students in their classrooms a quality education. The most valuable resource available to us are the Teachers themselves. Research has shown that the most impactful relationship to a students academic achievement is having an effective Teacher in their classroom. Increasingly, we cannot provide this resource.
Due to a lack of funding to public education and failure to keep pace with regional salary requirements, Oklahoma teachers are leaving the state and, in some cases, the profession altogether. Without adequate funding, we cannot recruit and retain the best teachers, our most valuable resource in education. This is not sustainable and deprives our students of the education they deserve.
We encourage our state leadership, and specifically our elected lawmakers, to act swiftly and avoid a shutdown by fully funding educational services and enacting salary increases for our Teachers for the good of our state and ALL Oklahoma students.
Greg Frederick
OKCPS Principal/President OCBA