UCO to hold free educator workshop on Friday

A free workshop will be held in Edmond on Friday to help educators and the public better understand Oklahoma’s public education legislative process. The one-day event, 'Teachers and the Legislature: Advocacy and Issues Forum', will be held in Nigh University Center’s Constitution Hall at the University of Central Oklahoma.

During the ‘Teacher Walk Out’, many educators seemed surprised to learn about the inner workings of the political side of public education funding and expressed consternation to members of the legislature willing to listen to their concerns. One member of the legislature who heard those complaints and decided to do something about them was long time educator, state Rep. Ed Cannaday, (D-Porum), District 15.

“We want this to be a non-partisan event and I believe the agenda we’ve prepared reflects that aspect. I’ve been an educator most of my professional life and I had many visitors to my office during the ‘Teacher Walk Out’, a large number of whom were former students who are now teachers. Needless to say, their questions to me reflected a need to host some kind of advocacy training to help with the political side of civics.” explained Cannaday, whose office worked with the University of Central Oklahoma to produce the upcoming event.

Questions put to Cannaday during the walk out dealt heavily with block voting records that seemed to indicate a coordinated effort by some to defund public education, causing teachers to ask, “Why?”

“Rep. Monroe Nichols, (D-Tulsa), District 72, and I had previously scheduled an interim study to look into ways we could help with classroom funding by discovering non-traditional funding sources but Special Session interrupted progress with that study. Truly, finding ways to patch the problem isn’t what we wanted, anyway, so we reached out to UCO and they were so receptive. This workshop should serve to further an investigation into why our teachers are not paid to their value and why we have seen diminished investment and diminished returns, regarding public school classroom funding.”

When asked about the need for advocacy training for public school teachers and the taxpaying public, Rep. Nichols zeroed in on the word “public”.

“A strong, well-funded public education system is our greatest economic development asset. I believe our inability to adequately fund education over the last decade is one of the reasons our state economy lagged behind the rest of the country. At a time where we are still losing teachers to neighboring states and other professions, it is clear that addressing our needs in education starts with a strong, long-term commitment to invest in Oklahoma’s students and educators.”

“My goal is to empower teachers with information about how the Capitol operates so when advocating they not only feel comfortable in the building, but they also understand for themselves how the process works.”

“I think, unfortunately, some of this push back can be traced to a wave of anti-big government that has swept our nation. If one is unhappy with public school performance and out comes, address the issue, but to approach the problems with attrition tactics says to me that there is an agenda in play. Gutting public education funding is a threat to our democracy, as well as the economy and the health of our citizenry, not a means to prosperity.” Nichols stated.

“Our original plan was to host this here in the House Chamber but we did not want the event perceived as partisan so UCO agreed to not only provide Constitution Hall but their team fleshed out the agenda to make it truly fact and evidence based and open to teachers and the public of all social and political beliefs. This is really about educating educators, regardless of political beliefs.” said Nichols.

For more details on the event, or to register, please visit : http://sites.uco.edu/central/l...