Page 10 • August 27, 2020 • Edmond Life & Leisure
Commentary ... We’re on YOUR Side
A look at police reports Hazard pay for teachers? On page 12 today we have a police arrest report. Our publisher, Ray Hibbard, and I figured it would be a good feature for us to publish. Normally we don’t cover crime sto- Steve Gust ries in detail, but this is a matter of public record. I had an editor at another newspaper ask me why it was we covered the police and arrests. The answer was simple. For openers, the public pays for the police department. And while we’re mentioning that, let me repeat again that the crazy liberal idea of defunding police is completely wrong. I’d double everyone’s salary if I could. Secondly, the report is a safeguard. We need a record of what the police do. When I say that, I by no means imply anything derogatory to the Edmond Police Department. I’ve always thought they were a great bunch of folks. Yet we can never live in a society where someone can be arrested and there not be a record of it.
For the people, whose names appear in the newspaper, I’m sorry for the inconvenience it may cause. Yet there are some consequences for actions. Anyway, feel free to comment to me below or our publisher at ray@edmondpaper.com. ----I have probably mentioned this story before, but when I first signed on as a reporter 200 years ago, I had a odd experience. A gentleman came to the newspaper office just livid. He was a wildeyed looking guy with long hair. And he was mad. It seems the newspaper I was working at during this time, printed his name for driving under the influence. And by the way, that is not a cool thing to do at all. Anyway, most of us initially believed he was mad about having his name linked to an arrest. What he was really mad about was his name wasn’t spelled right. We were only more than happy to print it once again. (Steve Gust, editor of Edmond Life & Leisure, may be reached at news@edmondpaper.com)
By Jon Hazell I am, and always have been, a strong supporter of our nation’s military. It is a critical component for the safety and well-being of our citizens. I believe in the need to fund and equip our military fully, so that they might avail themselves of every resource necessary to protect this great nation from outside harm. But with that being said, our military is not our nation’s number one defense in securing and maintaining our thriving republic. I believe, along with Thomas Jefferson, that this nation’s most important defense is a well-educated public. It is not hyperbole to say that as our educational system goes, so will our nation. Now, more than at any other time in our nation’s history, we desperately need quality education for every child in this country. You could almost call this a wartime situation with regard to what is going on in the arena of public education. Because of that, there is something that we, as a nation, need to consider. When a man or a woman in active military service is required to go to war, they receive more pay under the term of “battle pay” or “hazard pay,” because they have entered an arena where their life could be in imminent danger, for the
sake of defending their country. I submit that in America, at this time in history, the American public school teacher is doing the exact same thing. Many are putting their very lives at stake to provide this country its greatest need for a strong defense — a well-educated public — and in so doing, should be considered worthy of hazard pay, due to the imminent danger many will face every day, when they walk into a classroom full of potential carriers of that which could literally cost them their lives. No, I am not comparing this to being shot at by snipers or tanks, but I will unequivocally say that there is an unseen enemy that can invade teachers' lives at any given moment, absolutely putting not only their lives in danger, but the lives of other members of their family as well. It’s time we admit that many public school teachers are putting their lives on the line daily, as they answer the call of providing for our nation’s greatest hope of defending and maintaining our great republic, and they should be compensated accordingly.
Hazell, of Durant, was 2017 Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year.l.
More money not luring more teachers By Ray Carter In 2018, lawmakers voted to raise taxes by roughly $600 million with a significant share of that money going to teacher pay raises, and then voted to raise teacher pay again in 2019. Over those two years, teacher salaries increased by an average $7,400 apiece. Lawmakers argued the pay raises would eliminate the state’s teacher shortage and draw more educators to Oklahoma’s classrooms. It has not worked out as predicted, and lawmakers were told earlier in this month to expect an outright decline in the number of teachers in state schools this year. “We just surveyed all the schools in the state, as we do every year for teacher-shortage survey, and you can probably guess in this year with everything going on it’s a little worse,” said Shawn Hime, executive director
of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. “We expect 300 to 500 fewer teachers this year, based on that survey, statewide.” Hime made those comments during a study conducted by the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education. He said the shortage is the result of teachers choosing to leave the profession and school officials choosing not to fill vacant positions due to anticipated state budget shortfalls in the coming year. A shortfall of up to $1 billion has been predicted for next year’s state budget due to low oil prices and the impact of the COVID-19 recession. While COVID-19 may play some role in the predicted decline, many challenges in attracting teachers preceded the pandemic, despite the massive increase in average pay. While the number of teachers in Oklahoma schools
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initially increased after the pay raise, state records showed there would have been a net decline had it not been for growth in emergency-certified teachers. Overall, from passage of tax increases in 2018 to December 2019, the state netted one additional teacher for every $364,000 in increased school spending. And a top official at the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) indicated those numbers may effectively be inflated as the result of teachers who chose to defer retirement. State retirement benefits are tied to the top three to five highest years of pay, depending on when a teacher entered the system. As a result, some teachers chose to teach a few more years because they would receive larger retirement benefits if their final years of salary included the $7,400 increase. Noting those factors, the chief of government affairs at the OSDE warned in October 2019 of a pending exodus from the teaching profession, saying, “We have a cliff coming, kind of, in three years down the road from the teacher pay raise.” Officials have also said any shortage of teachers is not the result of limited supply. In December 2019, education officials said there remain about 32,000 people in Oklahoma who are certified but not teaching. Recognizing that pay raises have not generated the necessary increase in traditionally certified teachers in Oklahoma schools, lawmakers voted this year to extend the number of years an individual may teach with an emergency certificate from two years to four.
Ray Carter is Director for the Center for Independent Journalism of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
