Like many other evolving stories which illuminate and illustrate our life and times along this, the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66, I have had to stop myself more than once from writing this piece before the subject matter was ripe enough to rate appropriate commentary. Since January 2011, the Oklahoma State Senate, House of Representatives, the Office of the Governor and all nine state offices have been in the control of the Republican Party. In 2018 we have a more than clear picture of the results produced by eight years of administration and statutes formulated and passed by an all-GOP government and much of it is not only not good, it is egregiously bad. Not only have core conservative (whatever that may now mean) policies failed, they have failed many in Oklahoma in grand fashion. Chief among the strategic policy errors that have led this State to the brink of failure is the radical notion that cutting taxes increases revenue. Cutting taxes has not, is not and will not increase revenue. It makes for a wonderful campaign sound byte weary taxpayers love to hear, it just does not happen to work in actual practice as the past three state legislatures have demonstrated. When government fails to serve its citizens, those in government will in some way eventually hear from those they have failed. Such has been the case over the past two weeks. The one group of public servants that have borne so much of the brunt of GOP abuse, neglect and contempt more than any other is that of public school educators. There is no other sector or profession that has been as financially gutted and as publicly denigrated by multiple legislators more than Oklahoma classroom teachers and the system they serve.
As any other group of people who finally reach their limit of tolerable abuse, this month they rose up and let those failed lawmakers know exactly where they stand with enough people to matter regardless of party affiliation. By conducting a collective Walk Out, shutting down the State’s public schools and making too much noise to ignore, they got the attention of every elected Oklahoma state officer and legislator and even that of the entire nation. In the face of crisis, some legislators’ level of ignorance was only surpassed by their level of arrogance. This was articulated very appropriately by someone at the local Democratic luncheon club who was at the State Capitol this week supporting the teachers. According to this person’s account, the embattled GOP majority exuded an attitude that “The locals had invaded the country club!”
VIDEO: Rep. Kevin McDugle blasts teachers
I followed the nearly two week long teacher walk out on the local news, on social media and on the streets of our fair city at the intersection of 41st and Yale where a contingent of walked out Tulsa Public School faculty were present every single day of the protest. The plight of Oklahoma teachers and the shape of so many of our public schools is a genuine disgrace in every sense of the word and one that has been deliberately inflicted by elected legislators such as Mr. McDugle and his GOP Caucus brethren.
Don’t even get me started on our illustrious governor. Granted, Mary Fallin is a lame duck but party brand can stick like Elmer’s Glue. Likening public school teachers to “a teenager who wants a better car” is not the way to endear yourself to a sizeable segment of the voting public particularly after signing off on so many budgets that cut education funding enough to result in making Oklahoma next to or dead last in education funding. As I alluded to above, ignorance and arrogance have been the earmarks of the people in charge of all levers of Oklahoma government for the past eight years. The governor’s comments may be disappointing but should not be at all surprising.
This 56th Legislature has not at all acted like they want to address the real problem, lip service to the teachers notwithstanding. They have acted like they want is to rid themselves of the noise in their faces and hide from the mess they’ve made and they will do anything to achieve those ends for the here and now. The issue of education, which had been on the back burner for so much of the time, got everyone’s attention for the past two weeks. Although all their token efforts (passing a teacher pay raise then turning around and repealing a hotel tax that would fund it) fell far short of being adequate, the Oklahoma Education Association called for an end to the walk out on Thursday. We are to the point of impossible to give whoever is in charge at the State Capitol the benefit of the doubt. They can’t even be given an “E” for Effort. I and so many others wish this was just a high school project that could be declared a categorical failure and a grade assigned to reflect it then we could all move on. Sadly however, this is real life in Oklahoma in 2018.
The Teacher Walk Out served its purpose but to achieve any real change from this unacceptable status quo is going to take a whole new set of duly elected individuals in the legislature and state offices. That said, the legacy of these last eight years is going to be one of transforming the State of Oklahoma into a backwater for the foreseeable future. Realistically, it is going to take years of discipline for this once prosperous state to get back to where it was ten years ago. There is ample writing on the wall to indicate more than a few concerned Oklahomans see the same thing and are committing to do something about it.
The teachers were not the only ones that made history in Oklahoma these past two weeks. As of Close of Business on Friday, a record number of candidates filed for state and legislative office. For the past four election cycles there were often over thirty state house and senate seats occupied by Republican incumbents who all won reelection unopposed. Those days are hopefully over. As a few special elections over the past year have demonstrated, it is not enough to simply have an “R” next to a candidate’s name on a ballot to win on Election Day. From this point forward all Republicans, incumbents and challengers, are going to have to work (raise and spend money, walk their districts and knock doors) to earn every Election Day victory. The State of Oklahoma is in the worst state of disrepair I have ever seen in my lifetime. The education crisis is but one issue that is screaming to be addressed. We have not even touched on the issues of health care access and affordability, maintenance and repair of critical infrastructure and criminal justice reform. Like many other concerned citizens I have seen and met over the past two weeks, Oklahoma is my home good or bad. When good, to be kept good for all. When bad for whomever and for however many, to be made good. To do this, change must occur. What I have seen has filled me with a rising sense of hope. One-party rule has had its error-filled eight year run. I would like any member of the Oklahoma GOP responsible for the current shape of this state to look me or anyone in the eye and tell us with a straight face that they are proud of the results of the past eight years. They can say what they want about old Oklahoma Democrats and career politicians like Gene Stipe but none of them did this much damage to this state in its history. True, there are a lot of political novices running on the Democratic ticket for 2018. I will give them all this cautionary approval: Whatever may be the results of their legislative efforts, they cannot be much worse than the group they will be replacing.