Brown, Cannaday Deride 'Reckless' Tax Cuts

State Reps. Ed Cannaday, (left) Porum Democrat, and Mike Brown, (right) Fort Gibson Democrat, said today Oklahoma "cannot expand its economic base and provide the needed labor force and infrastructure while instituting reckless tax-cutting programs."

They made their joint statement after officials of the Oklahoma City and Metro Tulsa Chambers of Commerce announced their opposition to expanding state tax cuts at a recent hearing.

"It is encouraging to see business leaders acknowledge something that many of us in the Legislature have been proclaiming for some time," Cannaday said.

The chambers announced their position during a House Economic Development and Financial Services Committee interim study on the issue of restructuring the Oklahoma Opportunity Fund. The Oklahoma Supreme Court recently ruled that the fund's Review Board was unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers portion of the Oklahoma Constitution.

As part of the review of the Opportunity Fund, lawmakers focused on funding for projects that provide "a significant economic benefit to the state." The goal of the Opportunity Fund was to have state money that can be made immediately available to entice businesses to locate in the state.

"When officials were asked about the potential conflict between the Legislature's continued focus on cutting state taxes and expanding this business incentive program, the presidents of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Chambers of Commerce both stated unequivocally that having low state taxes is not an incentive that spurs a state's economic growth," Cannaday said. "Roy Williams said that 'cheapest is not best.' I hope my colleagues will take note."

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Cannaday Questions Longer School Year Idea, Wesselhoft Wants To Add 15 Days

State Rep. Ed Cannaday (D-Porum), a former school administrator, today questioned State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett’s call to expand Oklahoma’s school day and academic year.

“State Superintendent of Public School Sandy Garrett’s 'State of Education' speech on July 10 focused on the challenges facing Oklahoma education. She concluded that we could fix some problems by adding an extra hour per day and an extra week per year. This proposal also includes conducting extracurricular programs after school hours.

“She failed to mention the frequent interruptions to instructional time required by state mandates and required staff development schedules.

“Her recommended expansion would constitute a 20-percent increase in instructional time. However, the educational community learned in their 'block schedule' strategies that this expansion in time does not correlate to additional learning if a teacher does not add at least two different teaching strategies to the extended class period. Some mistakenly approached this as additional time to do assignments in the form of an unofficial study hall. This leads me to be concerned that we are merely adding to our schools another responsibility that should be handled by the family. I and other school officials have found there are long-range negative effects on schools when we isolate the family from participation in their child’s education.

“Many parents will gladly approve the greater time that schools extend their care and nurturing because it frees parents to pursue individual interests and concerns. We must realize that this is the precise difference between the US and the countries mentioned in the Superintendent Garrett’s speech: the families in the nations of Japan and China are intimately involved in their children’s education.

“There are three basic areas that this legislator must have addressed before I will join this parade of 'let’s try something new' led by those wishing to look like real problem-solvers. First, what specific problem are we attempting to solve or minimize by extending the school day/year? I do not mean some glib generality like 'getting students to learn more.' Are we talking about reducing remediation rates as students go to college? Do we want to improve the number of students going to college? What about ACT scores? What about CRT scores? And the list goes on. Each of these will require different strategies to address desired improvements and not just expansion of the school day/year.

“Second, what research based data is available that shows the extension of our school calendar results in a high positive correlation between the desired change and the action taken? We often say, well they are doing it in Kansas and Texas so it must be good. We must focus our plan on a specific problem and see if the school calendar of these other states resulted in the change we desire.

“Third, are the Legislature and state of Oklahoma ready and willing to increase the common education budget by 20 percent (giving schools 45 percent of the total state budget) to attempt this unproven technique to solve an unidentified problem? I believe that the state government will be more responsible than this. We will expect specific problems to be identified with specific proposed research based solution before we commit to such a large increase in expenditures.”

However, State Rep. Paul Wesselhöft drafted a bill last week to extend the number of student class days each school year from 175 to 190. He said today that a recent report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that gave Oklahoma's public school system two "F" grades is evidence that such a change is needed.

"Oklahoma has the lowest number of mandatory school days in the nation, and that's one of the reasons why our students are not as well educated as students in other states and in other nations around the world," said Wesselhöft, R-Moore. "Whether we like it or not, our children will have to compete in a global economy when they enter the workforce, and we must make sure they have every reasonable advantage possible."

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