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Power play: OEA isn't in the voters' corner

Category: Blocking · State: Oklahoma · Source: The Oklahoman

WHEN it comes to creativity, the Oklahoma Education Association deserves a failing grade. Time and again, the state's largest teachers union has made clear that it cares more about teachers' paychecks, money grabs and the status quo than taxpayers and the state's overall well-being. The latest evidence is an effort to amend the Oklahoma Constitution and force taxpayers to spend millions of dollars more per year on common education. The union has started an initiative petition drive to get the proposed amendment on a 2010 statewide ballot. If the drive is successful, voters would be asked to change the constitution and require lawmakers to fund schools at the regional average in per-pupil expenditures. The change could shift $850 million in state funding to common education from other state services or require tax increases.

Posted: Mon, Aug 11, 2008 · 10:42 PM ET

Petition idea doesn't add up

Category: Education · State: Oklahoma · Source: The Oklahoman

The education lobby will soon ask Oklahoma voters to sign a petition requiring that our state per-pupil school spending must always equal the regional average. There are at least four reasons why this is a bad and dangerous idea. First, anyone who knows basic arithmetic understands why this won't work. Every time you raise Oklahoma's per-pupil spending you also raise the regional average, even if the other states in our region do nothing. That ever-escalating average then becomes the carrot at the end of a stick, forever just out of reach. You can never equal a moving average when what you do drives that average forward. Second, the petition would require the immediate allocation of at least 850 million new dollars to the schools. Since the Oklahoma Constitution insists that we balance our budget, those dollars could come from only two places — other state programs or tax increases.

Posted: Sun, Aug 10, 2008 · 4:02 PM ET

Petition for state education funding filed

Category: Education · State: Oklahoma · Source: Tulsa World

Leading public education support groups including the Oklahoma Education Association filed a petition Wednesday with the state to put to a vote of the people a requirement that Oklahoma's students are funded at the average of the seven-state regional level. Chuck Pack, a teacher at Tahlequah High School, said he is spending about $600 a school year so that his math students have adequate supplies.

Posted: Wed, Aug 6, 2008 · 2:06 PM ET

Initiative Set for Ballot Would Curb Bilingual Ed

Category: Bill Sizemore · State: Oregon · Source: Oregon Statesman-Journal

An initiative to end bilingual education in Oregon has qualified for the November ballot, officials with the secretary of state's office said. If approved by voters, Initiative No. 19 — sponsored by Bill Sizemore — would ban bilingual education for all children in public schools learning English as a Second Language after two years of instruction. The proposed statutory amendment does allow for instruction of a foreign language to English-speaking students.

Posted: Wed, Jun 18, 2008 · 2:05 PM ET

Proposition 92 pits Cabrillo against UC

Category: Education · State: California · Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel

A February ballot measure that would deliver a windfall of cash to community colleges has the two higher education communities in Santa Cruz County in opposite corners.

Posted: Wed, Dec 12, 2007 · 12:31 PM ET

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